Left at the Altar
by White-Knight-1988
Summary: It was supposed to be Kimberly's perfect day, but as she learned a long time ago, perfect days are rare for Power Rangers, even former Power Rangers on the day they are to be married. Luckily, there’s someone out there who’s more than willing to help.
1. Stranded

_**Title: Left at the Altar**_

_**Summary: It was supposed to be Kimberly Hart's perfect day, but as she learned a long time ago, perfect days are rare for Power Rangers, even former Power Rangers on the day they are to be married. Luckily, there's someone out there who's more than willing to help her at her time of greatest need.**_

_**A/N: Yes, yes, I know I said I wasn't going to be writing for a long while, but I simply could not pass on the opportunity to write this story. The general idea came from jps1926, a young woman who has easily been my most loyal reviewer from the very beginning all the way until now. This story is dedicated to her, my way of saying "thank you" for the hundreds of wonderful reviews she has given to me over the years. That being said, I will not be returning to any of my other stories right now, so please do not ask. Between this, working full time, and being a full time student, I simply do not have the time.**_

_**A/N 2: Again, the very talented chrisangelo has done some companion art for this story. If everything goes according to plan, he'll be doing at least one piece per chapter. The link for the first picture is on my profile. And if you have the time, pleases visit the Perfect Chemistry forum and let Chris know what you think.  
**_

_**Chapter 1 **_—**_ Stranded_**

_**Original Posting Date: February 14, 2009**_

--

The bland, white walls of his shared hotel room surrounded Tommy Oliver as he lay atop a king-sized bed, staring up at the ceiling with his hands behind his head and a thoughtful expression on his face. He was shirtless, wearing just his black dress slacks and a pair of equally dark socks. The television played in the background, but Tommy could not make out what was being said; it was like white noise compared to everything else that was currently running through his mind.

Thoughts of what would be happening in the next few hours pierced his psyche as he tried to contend with the flurry of emotions he was currently experiencing: sadness because it was actually happening; joy because he was genuinely happy for her; confusion because he still did not understand why; and hurt because, out of all their mutual friends, she had picked the one closest to him to walk her down the aisle.

"Tommy?" a soft, accented voice belonging to a female called out from the bathroom, snapping him from his thoughts. When he did not immediately reply, however, she continued, "Tommy, can you come in here and help me with this necklace, please?"

Closing his eyes to prevent himself from rolling them, Tommy let out a quiet sigh, heaved himself back onto his feet, walked into the bathroom, and froze on the spot. Katherine Hillard, his on-again-off-again girlfriend of the past seven years had rendered him speechless, just as she had done so many times before.

Her normally straight blonde hair had been done in soft, bouncy curls and what little makeup she wore perfectly accented her gorgeous face, especially her piercing blue eyes. Then there was the dress: pink; strapless; knee-length; highlighting her hourglass figure in ways that would have turned the average man into a babbling fool. Luckily for Tommy, he had moved on from babbling to speechlessness a long time ago.

"Wow," Tommy breathed, stepping up behind her. "You look amazing," he continued, tracing his hands gently across her shoulders then, up and down her arms.

"Thanks, love," said Katherine, smiling as she winked at him through the mirror. "Oh no you don't," she admonished when Tommy began kissing her naked back. "Any more of that and we'll be late for sure."

"Aww, come on, baby, I promise I'll be quick," said Tommy, grinning while ignoring Katherine's protests. She just wasn't having it, though, and as she whirled around to face him, Tommy knew his only remaining line of defense was pouting his lips, which always seemed to make Katherine's frustration disappear no matter how big or small the issue.

Sighing, Katherine shook her head. "Later, love," she murmured, pressing a kiss to his lips before turning back around. Carefully pulling her hair up with one hand, she retrieved her necklace from the counter with the other, and handed it back to Tommy. "Now be a good boy and help me put this on, okay?"

Taking the necklace from her, Tommy gently clasped it in place around her neck, admiring Katherine's reflection as she let her hair fall back into place. She had looked stunning before, but Tommy had to admit there was just something about the necklace that made her look even more gorgeous whenever she wore it. The chain was white gold and held a matching cat, the feline's eyes made of the tiniest pink diamonds. It had been his gift to her on their third anniversary; or maybe their fourth; or their fifth; they had broken up and gotten back together so many times that Tommy's already-poor memory made it damn near impossible to keep track of things like anniversaries.

"You should probably finish getting ready too, you know," said Katherine, once Tommy had had sufficient time to take in her appearance. "The others are leaving in fifteen minutes, and Rocky has already said he won't wait for us if you're late."

Tommy rolled his eyes and, laughing, said, "Rocky'll wait as long as he has to if he knows what's good for him. I know I don't need to remind you what happened the last time Rocky left me behind somewhere."

Joining Tommy's laughter, Katherine shook her head. "No, I'm still scarred enough from the last time you reminded me. I don't think I'll ever be able to get over the image of Rocky hanging by his boxer shorts on the Angel Grove High flagpole."

"Like I said, he'll wait," said Tommy. Pecking a kiss to Katherine's cheek, he gave her behind a playful swat and then headed back into the bedroom. Retrieving his light-green dress shirt and white-and-green striped tie from their resting spot atop one of the room's two chairs, he carried them into the bathroom, took up the open space to Katherine's left, and proceeded to get dressed. "How's that?" he asked a few minutes later, pushing the knot of his tie into place.

Turning towards him, Katherine looked Tommy up and down for a few silent moments and then smiled. "Very handsome, love," she murmured, fiddling with the tie's knot even though he had tied it perfectly, simply because she thought it was the type of thing that girlfriends were supposed to do for their boyfriends. "Makes me wish it was appropriate for men to attend weddings shirtless."

"Hey, you had your chance a few minutes ago, remember?" said Tommy, seizing her wrists and preventing her fingertips from exploring his chest any further. Smiling down at her, he pulled Katherine in close and kissed her warmly.

The kiss, which lasted quite some time, seemed to have sparked something inside Katherine, for when they pulled apart, what escaped her lips was not what Tommy had been expecting at all. "When are _we_ going to get married, Tommy?"

Oh great, Tommy thought, forcing himself not to roll his eyes. "Kat, how many times are we going to talk about this? Marriage isn't something I take lightly, and I won't commit to it until we can go for any significant amount of time without us yelling at each other and breaking up over something stupid."

"Maybe if we actually committed to each other we wouldn't be breaking up over stupid stuff," said Katherine. "Maybe if we committed to each other we'd—"

Tommy sighed and interrupted with, "I am committed to you, Kat. If I wasn't, I wouldn't be here right now, but dating and marriage are two entirely different beasts. Until we've both proven that we can really make this work—"

"It's been seven years, Tommy," Katherine whispered. "Either we're meant to be together or we're not."

"You make it sound so simple," said Tommy, almost cynically.

"That's because it _is_ that simple."

Tommy shook his head; the last thing he wanted was another argument with Katherine, especially on this of all days. "Look, is now really the right time to have this conversation, Kat? Can't we talk about this later, when we don't have a wedding to get to?"

Katherine rolled her eyes, the frustration evident on her face. "Fine," she muttered, starting towards the door. "Let's go."

"Kat," Tommy began, not wanting to leave for the wedding on bad terms. She did not stop, though, so Tommy did the only thing he could think to do. He reached out, took her by the wrist, and pulled her in so that her back was against his chest; Katherine fought to escape, but Tommy held her tightly through her resistance, lowering his lips to her ear, whispering, "I don't want to fight with you baby."

She could not help the quiet moan that escaped her just seconds after Tommy had begun nibbling on her ear lobe. It was hard enough resisting the urge to shed her dress and jump him right then and there.

"I don't want to fight either," said Katherine, sighing as Tommy's hold on her slackened, enough for her to turn around and face him. Smiling, she brushed the back of her hand along the side of his face. "Let's go, okay? We can worry about us later."

With a great, internal sigh of relief, Tommy smiled and nodded, allowing Katherine to lead the way back into the bedroom. Once she had retrieved her handbag, and Tommy his wallet, keys, and suit jacket, they were off. Downstairs in the hotel lobby, Rocky, Billy, Zack, and Zack's date were already waiting for the pair.

"Remembered what happened last time, I see," said Tommy to Rocky, grinning as he and Katherine approached the small group.

Rocky rolled his eyes. "Come on, or we'll be late."

"Lead the way, monkey boy," said Tommy, laughing.

With a shake of his head, Rocky turned on his heels and started towards the door. Behind him, Tommy was certain that he heard Zack's date asking the former Black Ranger about Tommy's monkey boy comment. Tommy had to chuckle when he caught Zack's laughing reply of, "Babe, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you."

Oh, how true that was.

Compliments on attire were made amongst the rest of the group as they all stepped out into the warmth of Southern California in the middle of April. The Los Angeles sun was mild, perfect for an outdoor wedding. Alas, the day was not going to be spent outside; instead in a church, per the request of the supposedly more "traditional" groom.

Thinking of Jeff Reynolds as traditional made Tommy laugh out loud, for Jeff was about as far from traditional as possible, when not playing the role of Eddie Haskell of course. Tommy had seen Jeff interacting away from his fiancée, enough so to know that Kimberly Hart was about to make quite possibly the worst decision of her life by marrying the man who had cheated on her numerous times.

Sadly, though, Kimberly was oblivious to all of this. She had downright refused to believe it when Tommy had told her that he had spotted Jeff making out with another woman at a nightclub six months back; or that he had seen Jeff leaving a restaurant with yet another woman just two weeks before the club; or that Jeff, on another night when he and Tommy had happened to be in the same nightclub, had drunkenly stood atop a table and declared to the crowd, "I'm engaged and still looking!"

As he climbed into the backseat of Zack's black Chevy Suburban, Tommy thought back to the night shortly after Kimberly had announced her engagement to Jeff, when Tommy had finally decided that enough was enough and had gone to her with everything that he had seen. She had flat out called Tommy a liar to his face, told him that Jeff was a good man who would never even think about cheating on her—_thank you, very much!_—and that he, Tommy, needed to keep his lies to himself from now on if he still wanted to have a place in her life.

And though Tommy knew that he was not lying about Jeff's cheating ways, he did as Kimberly had requested, maintaining his silence even when it practically killed him to do so. It had taken them a long time to get back to being friends, nearly three years following their breakup and so—perhaps a bit selfishly, he would admit—Tommy decided to keep the remainder of his observations to himself from there on out, not wanting to run the risk of losing her friendship for the second time.

"Man, I can't believe that Kim, _our_ Kim, is really getting married," said Zack as he navigated the streets of Los Angeles en route to the church. Tommy, however, was nowhere near as surprised; Kimberly had spoken vividly of her fairytale wedding when she and Tommy had been together. "Any more of you assholes in the group decide to get married and I'll have no choice but to do the same thing."

"Aww, come on, Zack, it's really not as bad as you make it sound," Rocky supplied from the middle row of seats, slapping Zack on the shoulder. "In fact, it's actually pretty nice…most of the time, anyway," he added with a laugh.

"I must concur with Rocky," said Billy. "The feeling one experiences when you find the one person with whom you know for certain that you are meant to spend the rest of your life with is simply indescribable. I can only assume that there is no other comparable feeling in the world quite like it."

Tommy immediately turned his gaze towards Katherine, who for a moment looked poised to strike up another marriage conversation only to apparently think better of it, something Tommy was eternally grateful for.

"Yeah, but I mean, come on!" said Zack, shaking his head. "One person for the rest of your life? It's just not natural; goes completely against nature."

Either the red-haired beauty occupying the seat next to Zack firmly agreed with her date's logic—or lack thereof, perhaps—or just did not want to run the risk of losing out on a night with the Zack-man by voicing her disagreement. Tommy simply smiled; if Zack had his way, the words "Zack" and "marriage" would have been legally prohibited from being spoken within three sentences of one another, while committing said offense would have been a crime punishable by death.

"Speaking of marriage, where are the girls, anyway?" asked Tommy, finally noticing that Aisha and Trini were nowhere in sight.

Staring at Tommy in the rearview mirror, Zack rolled his eyes. "You're joking, right? Man, the way you forget things is ridiculous," he laughed, though Tommy did not see what was so humorous. "Tommy, they're bridesmaids, remember?"

"Oh yeah," said Tommy distantly, not surprised at all that he had forgotten this detail. Much had changed since his days as a spandex wearing, teenaged superhero—or a mid-twenties superhero if his last stint in black was considered—but his memory, unfortunately, was not one of those things.

Some twenty minutes later Zack's SUV swung into the church parking lot, pulling into the empty space in between Jason's red Dodge Ram and Billy's blue Ford Explorer, the latter of which had been used by his wife to transport Kimberly and the rest of her bridesmaids. Not seconds later Adam's black Camaro appeared, taking the empty spot across from Zack's vehicle.

As he climbed out of the Suburban, Tommy did a quick headcount: Jason and his date were already there, as were Kimberly, Aisha, and Trini; including his own party and the simultaneous arrival of Adam and Tanya—who were married, lived in Los Angeles, and thus had no need for a hotel—they were all present and accounted for. The time had finally arrived, the time for Tommy to face that which he had been trying to avoid ever since he had received the invitation in the mail last year.

Swallowing hard, Tommy looked to the church entrance where a few clusters of people were slowly making their way inside. And that's when it hit him, really and truly hit him; Kimberly, who he had loved for so many years, even after she had broken up with him and shattered his heart, was actually getting married. It was real, a very hard and painful truth that Tommy had not at all expected to effect him like it was. Within the hour she would be married, the final piece of doubtless confirmation that she had really moved on.

If only Tommy could have said the same thing.

--

In a small, almost hidden room, Kimberly sat in an old wooden chair, staring at her reflection in the mirror, her mother and bridesmaids surrounding her on all sides. Kimberly could hardly believe that she was about to be married; it was a surreal thought, and though this wedding was far from the way she had envisioned it in her youth—both in setting and groom (_stupid Brad Pitt falling in love with someone else!)_—it was nonetheless just as exciting and nerve-racking as she had anticipated.

Looking herself in the mirror, Kimberly had to admit that she looked far better than even she could have imagined, mostly due to the immense beautician skills of one of her bridesmaids, all of whom looked stunning in matching, soft pink dresses. Aisha and Trini had argued endlessly about being forced to wear pink, but Kimberly had firmly and defiantly refused to back down. It was her wedding after all, and if she wanted her bridesmaids to wear pink, then dammit, they were going to wear pink!

"I'm really doing this, aren't I?" Kimberly murmured, more to herself than anyone else.

Catching Kimberly's eyes in the mirror, Aisha smiled and nodded. "You sure are, girl. You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

Kimberly hastened to shake her head. "No, not at all, it's just…I don't know really. I can't explain it. Everything just feels weird all of a sudden, like this isn't really happening."

Caroline Dumas, Kimberly's mother, laid a comforting hand upon her daughter's shoulder and said softly, "That is a perfectly normal feeling, Kimberly. I felt the exact same way on my wedding day."

"Which one?" Kimberly countered, sharing a knowing laugh with her mother who, ever since her divorce from Kimberly's father, had steadfastly considered her first marriage akin to one's first car or apartment—temporary, until something better eventually presented itself.

For quite some time, it had broken Kimberly's heart to know that her father would not be present to see his only daughter married, but Kenneth Hart had had very little contact with Kimberly since shortly after the divorce: her high school graduation, her three-gold medal performance at the Pan Global Games, the car accident that had nearly claimed her life and caused her to spend a month in the hospital; looking back on the last nine or so years of her life, Kimberly could not think of a single major event that her father had been there to witness.

"I wish Daddy was here," Kimberly admitted, blinking back tears. Despite their lack of contact and the way he had treated her mother, Kimberly had never stopped loving her father, nor had she stopped wanting him in her life. She had simply grown tired of all the lies and excuses, and had ceased trying altogether.

"I know you do, sweetie, but Pierre is here; and so is Kenny; and Uncle Chuck and Aunt Terry; Nana, Poppa, Oma, Opa, and all of your friends, too," Caroline supplied with a soft smile directed both towards her daughter and to Aisha, Trini, and Adriana, the latter of whom had been Kimberly's closest friend in Florida as well as the one responsible for the bride's stunning appearance. "There are so many people here who love you and want to be a part of this very special day, sweetheart. Please don't let one person ruin it for you; especially not your father, of all people."

"You're mom's right, Kim," Adriana interjected. "Everyone here is so happy for you."

"Tommy's not," said Kimberly, her mouth hanging open in an expression of shock when she realized what she had just said.

Behind her, Aisha and Trini shared a knowing look. It was common knowledge between the trio of female ex-Rangers that Kimberly had never truly gotten over Tommy, that the untimely demise of their relationship plagued her still to this day, just as much as it had the day she had sent him the letter.

"You don't know that, Kim," said Trini, almost admonishingly. She had always had a way of putting Kimberly in her place when need be, and apparently now was one of those times. "Tommy has never wanted anything for you except what you want for yourself. As long as you're happy with being married to Jeff, then Tommy will be happy for you."

Though she was poised to do so, before Kimberly could argue there was a knock at the door, followed by the voice of Jason Scott reaching her ears through the wooden barrier, asking, "Can I come in?"

Kimberly nodded, which Aisha took as the signal to let Jason in.

"Damn girl, look at you all fancied up," said Jason, grinning at Aisha.

"Oh hush up, boy," said Aisha, laughing, shaking her head as Jason pulled her in for a careful hug, the former Red and Gold Ranger certain that messing up Aisha's hair, even in the slightest, would in turn earn himself a lifetime's worth of scorn.

"Jason, I'm sure I didn't just hear you use a swear word, am I correct? What would your mother think if I told her?" said Mrs. Dumas.

Jason looked to the elder woman and smiled. "Oh, I'm sorry, Caroline. You look so natural with the rest of these young ladies, I thought you might have been a last minute addition to Kim's army of bridesmaids."

Mrs. Dumas blushed at the compliment, while Kimberly, through gritted teeth, muttered, "Three is not an army, Jason."

"Hey now, short stack, you know I'm only teasing," said Jason, winking at Kimberly who looked none too impressed with her oldest and closest male friend. Seeing her disproval, Jason added, "Come on, Kim, you gotta turn that frown upside down. It's your wedding day, kiddo!"

"Thanks, Jase," said Kimberly, rolling her eyes. "I hadn't noticed."

"Forgive my daughter, Jason," said Mrs. Dumas, casting as harsh a glare at Kimberly as she could manage on this special day, which meant it was not very harsh at all. "She's just feeling a bit anxious, that's all."

Jason smiled and nodded. "There's no need to apologize, Caroline. After watching most of my friends get married, I've gotten the impression that pretty much everyone gets nervous right before they take the big plunge."

"Speaking of marriage, Jason, when are you going to finally settle down?"

Laughing, Jason shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "I dunno really. Whenever I find a woman that's worth marrying, I guess. Back when we were seven or so, Kim and I made a promise that if neither of us was married by the time we were thirty that we would marry each other, but that one's looks like it's about to fly right out the window, doesn't it? I'm hopeless, I swear!"

While the others laughed at this, the look on Kimberly's face upon hearing Jason's public recollection of their ultimate and sacred, pinky-sworn and spit-shook, sandbox promise was horrific at best; in fact, after twenty-plus years of friendship, Jason was entirely certain that he had never seen Kimberly looking like she wanted to do him severe bodily harm more than she did at that very moment. It was the least he could do to shoot her an apologetic smile from across the room.

"Oh my, the time!" said Mrs. Dumas, after several more minutes of casual chatting; none of which, Kimberly thanked the heavens above, had involved any more childhood revelations from Jason's front. "I've left Pierre out there by himself for almost half an hour. Oh, and his English!" she declared, hurrying towards the door without a word of goodbye. "I just hope he hasn't said something silly to the wrong person."

Kimberly stared at the place where her mother had just been with a slightly stunned expression. "Wow, thanks for wishing me luck and everything, mom," she muttered to herself.

As if on command, Mrs. Dumas bustled back into the room as though she had forgotten her purse, and hastily approached her daughter's side. "Oh, Kimberly," she murmured, tears in her eyes as she swooped down and placed a kiss to Kimberly's cheek. "You have no idea how proud and happy for you I am. I would wish you luck, but I know you don't need it."

"Thanks, Mom," said Kimberly, smiling as she and her mother hugged one another warmly.

"I'll be watching you, sweetie," said Mrs. Dumas. She squeezed Kimberly's hand, turned on her heels, and was off, muttering what sounded like a prayer that Pierre hadn't embarrassed himself, or worse.

"I should kick your ass for that comment, Jason," said Kimberly, once she was absolutely certain that Mrs. Dumas was gone and not returning. "I can't believe you told my mom about that, of all people!"

Jason stared down at his feet, awkwardly fiddling with his red-and-gold striped tie. "It just slipped out. I didn't mean to," he muttered apologetically. He knew it wasn't so much the contents of what he had said that had made Kimberly upset, but the fact that they had also promised on that day to never tell another living soul about their wedding promise. Promises, as anyone who knew Kimberly could attest, were not something the former Pink Ranger took lightly; and as far as keeping them went, Jack Bauer torturing her with Professor Snape's _Veritaserum_ would not have been enough to make her spill the beans.

_Fictional characters, Kim, fictional characters,_ she silently reminded herself, the faintest hint of a smile crossing her lips as she looked back up at Jason. "It's okay, I'm over it," she told him, forming a full-fledged smile when Jason let out an exaggerated sigh of relief.

"Well then, we should probably get going too," said Aisha, nodding towards the clock. In ten minutes time Ms. Kimberly Hart would be standing at the altar, on the cusp of becoming Mrs. Kimberly Reynolds. _Eww, that __**so**__ doesn't sound good!_ thought Aisha, making a mental reminder to encourage Kimberly in the taking of a hyphenated last name once all of the wedding hoopla was over and done with.

"Okay," said Kimberly, slowly standing up. "Thanks for everything, you guys," she added, hugging each of her bridesmaids warmly. "I'll see you out there, okay?"

"I sure hope so," Trini replied with a laugh. "It is _your_ wedding, after all."

Kimberly rolled her eyes, and after a brief, shared laugh, waved goodbye to the disappearing trio. Once they were gone, she turned to Jason and smiled. "It's almost time, bubba."

Smiling just as brightly, Jason nodded. "Yeah, it is," he muttered, choking on his words mid-sentence. Both he and Kimberly were equally surprised to find that he now had tears in his eyes.

"Oh, Jase, please don't," said Kimberly, striding across the room as fast as she could in high-heels while dragging the train of her dress behind her. "You can't cry because then I'll start crying too, and dammit all, I can _not_ afford to start crying eight and a half minutes before I'm supposed to get married!"

Jason managed a hiccoughing laugh at that. "I'm sorry, it's just…forget it," he replied, shaking his head. "If I even try to describe what I'm feeling right now I'll only end up turning into a blubbering idiot. Just know that I'm really, really proud of you, and absolutely honored that you asked me to be the one to walk you down the aisle."

"There's no one else in the world I'd rather have walk me down the aisle then you, Jase," said Kimberly, smiling up at him.

"Not even Tommy?" asked Jason, chuckling as he dabbed at his eyes with the red pocket square that had been in his suit jacket moments prior.

Kimberly shook her head. "Not even Tommy," she repeated truthfully; mostly because, from the time that they had met and even after they had broken up, until very recently Kimberly had always imagined Tommy as being the one in her fairytale wedding: wearing a white tuxedo; standing at the altar; waiting for her and only her.

"He'd kill me if I told you this, but I guess I kind of owe you one for earlier," Jason muttered. "He was crushed when you didn't ask him."

"Really?" said Kimberly, her eyebrows raised curiously as Jason nodded. "Well, I can't imagine why. I mean, we're friends and everything now, but things have never quite been the same between us since…well, you know."

Jason shrugged. "I think it's only fair you know, Kim, even after everything that happened, Tommy never once stopped caring about you. I think it just took him awhile to learn to care for you as something other than his girlfriend."

"Well I can't change anything now," said Kimberly, pretending to be unfazed by this revelation, even though inside it felt like her heart was being wrenched every which way imaginable. And suddenly her mind was flooded by images of Tommy; the boy he had once been and the man he was today. It took only a fleeting glimpse of a pony-tailed Tommy doing karate in the park to remind herself that she had never stopped loving him.

Alas, she was forced to banish these thoughts immediately, for despite her love for Tommy she knew that she could never act on her feelings, not after the damage she had already done once before. She could not be trusted with Tommy's heart again, and so she had never once attempted to go after it, even on the many opportunities that she had been given to do so.

"I know, I know," said Jason, somewhat defensively, "I just thought you should know, that's all."

"Thanks, Jase," said Kimberly, a bit tightly. "Now, I have a wedding to get to. Do you want to walk me down the aisle, or do you want me to go out there and get Tommy to do it for you? Because I'm willing to if you've got cold feet…"

Jason laughed at that and shook his head. "Cold feet, my ass. I wouldn't miss this moment for the world, short stack," he replied, offering Kimberly his arm, which she took with a gracious smile. "And now, my dear, let's go get you married."

--

With Katherine on his arm, and the rest of the group in tow, Tommy quietly made his way into the church proper and did a quick scan of the spacious room to determine which side belonged to the bride as they made their way down the aisle. It just so happened that the woman in the aisle seat of the front pew on the left side chose exactly that time to look their way.

For a brief moment Tommy dared the thought of averting his eyes from Caroline Dumas, but he could not and felt his legs become rubber as a result. It took all his strength not to fall to the ground right there in front of everybody. When he looked into the eyes of Caroline Dumas he did not see Caroline Dumas; instead it was as if Kimberly herself was looking right at him, through the body of a middle aged woman.

Luckily, though, Caroline seemed not to have recognized Tommy without his ponytail, earring, and boyish face, because she had barely locked eyes with Tommy before returning her attention to her husband beside her. Nonetheless, the briefest of looks was all it had taken for a painful lump to form in Tommy's throat as he forced himself to walk, leading the others to a pew in the middle section of the bride's side.

Fully intending to take the aisle seat, just in case the urge to kick Jeff's ass became too strong and he was forced to excuse himself, Tommy maintained his hold on Katherine's arm and stepped back, allowing the others to file one-by-one in front of him. He took the aisle seat and allowed himself the smallest of smiles; it was a minor victory in a day that had been—and was still being—filled with major losses, the next of which came seconds later, as soon as he laid eyes on Jeff Reynolds.

There were such a myriad of reasons to hate the guy that Tommy couldn't even think of a good one at the moment. Balling his fists as tightly as possible, all that Tommy knew for certain was that Jeffrey Reynolds had absolutely zero business marrying Kimberly Hart—no, no, no, hell no!—not his Kimberly Hart.

Unfortunately, crappy as it was, she _wanted_ to marry him, Tommy reminded himself, and if that was what she wanted then that was what she was going to get. He would not interfere any further, no matter how badly he longed to do so. Lowering his eyes to the floor and slowly closing them, Tommy remained that way for quite awhile. Though he did not know how long it had been, when he opened his eyes a few minutes later a wide grin had formed on his face, for reasons that only he could understand.

But then the bridal march was playing and it was happening; it was really, truly, honest to goodness happening and there wasn't a damn thing that Tommy could do about it except turn his eyes towards the entrance in anticipation of Kimberly's arrival, just like everyone else in the church was in the process of doing.

Seeing Jeff on the altar, surrounded by his three groomsmen, had given Tommy plenty to keep his mind occupied with while waiting for Kimberly's entrance. The smile, of course, had happened as a result of Tommy planning out elaborate fight scenes in his head, all of which ended with Jeff and his groomsmen laid out on the altar with their necks snapped. Forty-five seconds tops is all it would take, thought Tommy with a wry grin, though it could have easily been forty if he was not seated so far away from the altar.

The sound of the large oak double doors creaking open pulled Tommy from his thoughts of ending four relatively innocent lives; a chorus of "oohs" and "ahhs" reached his ears long before he had been able to see Kimberly, but when he saw her…Tommy was ever thankful to be seated, certain that he would be unable to stand for at least the next few minutes, perhaps even longer than that.

She looked so beautiful that Tommy felt the lump that had formed in his throat upon seeing Caroline Dumas return in full force, twice as painful as before. Indeed, even after all that had happened, there wasn't a woman on earth who Tommy found more undeniably beautiful than Kimberly, a feeling that had only been further accentuated now.

The dress was absolutely perfect; strapless, pearl white, hugging Kimberly's petite frame in ways that had Tommy's mind spinning dangerously out of control. Her hair had been done in curls, curls so bouncingly perfect that they made Katherine's look like the result of a long night's sleep instead of three hours worth of careful work. Gripping the edge of the pew tightly, it was all he could do not to bum rush Jason, tackle his best friend, and seize his rightful place at Kimberly's side.

And as Jason and Kimberly slowly approached the altar, the eyes of the former leaders met in a brief moment of clarity. Jason smiled apologetically and Tommy nodded his acceptance; even though they had had this discussion numerous times already, Jason still felt the need to apologize and Tommy still felt the need to accept said apology. Truthfully, though, selfishly even, Tommy was rather sure he would never be able to get over the feeling of not being the one to walk Kimberly down the aisle. If he could not be the one standing at the altar, he had at least hoped he would have been given the privilege to walk her, or at least some role in the wedding besides that of a mere spectator.

Reminding himself of how selfish that sounded, Tommy cleared his mind and attempted to capture Kimberly's attention. He did, but only for a moment, and then she was looking elsewhere, obviously trying to pay some semblance of notice to as many of the two-hundred-plus people staring back at her as possible.

As his view of Kimberly quickly went from front to back, Tommy found that everything seemed to just sort of slip away into a blur of nothingness, like a deep sleep after an extremely long and tiring day. He could vaguely hear things in the background, and reasoned that it was the priest speaking to the congregation, then another voice he determined to belong to Kimberly, likely in the midst of reciting her vows.

It wasn't until he heard the words "I do" that the blur suddenly became clear once again. The lump in his throat was back, only this time accompanied by an even worse pain, this one in the pit of his stomach. The only comparable pain that Tommy could liken it to was absorbing a full-powered blast to the gut from Serpentera while not in morph. It was, by far, the worst pain he had felt in his twenty-seven years of living; no power loss or defeat in battle came even remotely close to this.

Eventually the pain seemed to numb him to everything else around him, so that all he could focus on was Kimberly and the expression on her face as it went from beaming and misty-eyed, to a look of pure, unadulterated sadness coupled with a clear, gaping expression of shock. He heard distant phrases like "can't do this," and "met someone else," but none of it made any sense to him. For the life of him, Tommy could not figure out why Kimberly was just standing there, staring at a wall with her mouth agape and tears streaming down her face.

"Oh my God!" Katherine exclaimed, her hand flying to her mouth.

"Is this some kind of joke? Where are you, Ashton Kutcher?" asked Rocky, a callous question that he and only he could get away with at a time like this. "Where's the _Punk'd_ bastard, so I can kick his ass?"

"What the hell just happened?" said Zack, his question just one of many being chorused by the many others in the church.

Tommy did not partake in their questioning, but instead remained silent, his tunnel vision still firmly locked onto Kimberly; and then finally, slowly but surely, it all started to fall into place. And the pain he felt upon hearing her say "I do" became nothing compared to the inexplicable shattering of his heart as he watched Kimberly's legs give way, saw her fall down to her knees right there at the altar, her bouquet still firmly in her grasp.

He tried to get up: to help her, or comfort her, or anything else he could possibly do, but his legs simply refused to cooperate. There was nothing he could do except watch, watch as seemingly everyone else but him made to attend to Kimberly. Then, without warning, Tommy was up and on his feet; the next thing he remembered was being just feet away from a surrounded Kimberly, separated only by the arms-across-the-chest form of Jason.

"Not now, Tommy," said Jason quietly, gently turning Tommy and guiding him back down the aisle.

Tommy did not know why he went, nothing that had happened in the last hour made any sense at all. Perhaps it was a dream. Perhaps it was all just one big, crazy dream, a dream he would wake up from any moment now.

The second Tommy's eyes snapped open three hours later he knew that he had not been dreaming at all. Kimberly had really been left at the altar and the pain in his stomach was still as strong as it had been in the church. Pushing himself into a seated position, Tommy looked around to see that he was in his and Katherine's hotel room, but was unable to recall how he had gotten back here. The mostly empty glass on the nightstand beside him led Tommy to believe that he had at least had once drink before passing out, though he knew it had likely been more than just the one.

"Oh, you're awake," said Katherine tightly from her seat in the chair across the room. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrible," said Tommy, grimacing as he rubbed the back of his neck. "What the hell happened?"

"I don't know, Tommy," Katherine replied; more and more, Tommy could tell from her voice tone that she was angry with him, though he was not sure why. "I think you should ask the mini-bar that question. It seems to be missing all of the Jack Daniels and Absolut bottles that were in there this morning."

"Relax, there weren't even that many in there," said Tommy, gingerly rubbing the bridge of his nose before moving to his pulsing head. Tommy knew his body well, and this full-body pain was not the result of an overindulgence of alcohol. No, it was the result of feeling his heart shattered into a million tiny little pieces all over again. There wasn't a thing on the planet that could have prepared him for the pain he felt at seeing Kimberly crushed at the altar. "Do you have any aspirin in your purse?"

Katherine scoffed and shook her head. "You drank yourself into this, Tommy, now you have to deal with it."

For a few silent moments, Tommy stared at Katherine in disbelief, and then let out a chuckle that was eerily cynical. "You know what, it's not even worth arguing about so I'll save us both the trouble," he replied, throwing himself onto his feet.

He found his pants on the floor and pulled them on, then his shirt and did the same. He had only packed for two days, so throwing his clothes into his duffel bag was a rather quick process, one that Katherine watched with great amusement. Once he had finished packing, Tommy threw his duffel bag over his shoulder and started towards the door.

"Where are you going?" asked Katherine, just as his fingertips grazed the handle.

"I don't know," said Tommy, not bothering to turn around. "Away."

"And you're going to get there how, exactly?"

Tommy reached into his pants pocket for his car keys, fully intending to hold them up as a show of what a ridiculous question that had been, only to find that they were no longer there. He turned around and saw Katherine dangling the key ring on her index finger, grinning triumphantly back at Tommy.

Unfortunately for Katherine, however, this was nowhere near the hindrance she had expected it to be. Tommy slipped his hand into his back pocket for his wallet, fumbled around until he felt his thumb graze one of his credit cards, and then shrugged his shoulders quite nonchalantly. Again, it was one of the many places where Kimberly and Katherine differed; Kimberly would have covered all the bases and taken his wallet too, truly leaving him at whatever mercy she did or did not choose to show.

"Fuck it," said Tommy, leaving Katherine looking absolutely stunned. "I'll just rent a car. Better yet, I think I'll buy a new one. What's that Mercedes you're always talking about, the two-seater, you know, your dream car?"

"The SLK55 AMG?" said Katherine, staring at Tommy in a way that dared him to say yes.

Grinning, Tommy snapped his fingers victoriously. "Yeah, that's the one. I think I'm gonna go down to the Mercedes dealership tomorrow morning and see about getting one of those. Baby, I'm going to be the talk of the school when I show up Monday morning in my brand new Mercedes-Benz convertible."

Tommy stayed behind just long enough to catch the disbelieving, shocked expression on Katherine's face before he slipped into the hallway, smiling triumphantly to himself as he headed for the nearest elevator. He had no intention of purchasing the Mercedes in question, though he easily could have afforded to do so. No, instead he would simply rent a cheap vehicle tomorrow morning, just something to get him through the rest of the weekend and back to Reefside, and then he would retrieve his Jeep from Katherine's house on Monday evening, after they had both apologized profusely to one another and agreed never to fight over something that silly ever again.

Yeah, right, Tommy scoffed inwardly, because that would be the first time I've ever heard _that_ one before!

In the hotel lobby, Tommy decided to see about getting another room for the night before doing anything else. Luckily there were still rooms available, so after a bit of paperwork and a few lies to the concierge about why he was changing rooms, Tommy had a new key and a new room, one that differed with the old room only by the painting that hung above his bed; a Venetian gondola as opposed to an English clipper.

Tommy tossed his bag on the floor with little care, flopped down on the bed, stared up at the ceiling, immediately shot back onto his feet, and quickly started to pace around the room. It had taken only the briefest glimpse of the pearl white ceiling—the same shade of white that Kimberly's dress had been—to be reminded once more of what had happened just a few short hours ago.

And then suddenly his heart was racing. For reasons Tommy could not readily explain, the air of nervousness he was now feeling was unlike anything he had experienced in quite some time, as if something big was about to happen, though what that was he did not know. The only thing that seemed to make sense in his mind was that Kimberly had been hurt in ways that Tommy could not even begin to fathom: his Kimberly; his sweet, beautiful, little Kimberly had been left at the altar by Jeff the Jerk, a notion that crushed Tommy's very spirit more than it surprised him.

He had known that Jeff was a bad seed right from the get-go, from the very first time he had met the man, but despite his desire to see Kimberly in a better situation, never in his darkest dreams could he have wished this current scenario on her. It hurt him terribly to know that her pain was so very much beyond any semblance of imaginable comprehension.

"Kim," Tommy murmured, rubbing the back of his neck, as though expecting her to reply.

Hearing her name on his lips was all it took, the proverbial straw to finally break the camel's back. Before conscious thought could take over, his legs were moving faster than they had done in years. As he moved, the sounds he heard became more vivid then the sights he saw: the slamming of his bedroom door; the heavy thud of his feet as he ran through the hallway; the chime of the elevator, letting him off on the tenth floor; the soft whimpering from behind another door; and the pounding of his fist against said door.

"Who is it?" he heard Aisha call out after a few silent moments of waiting.

"Tommy."

"Tell him to go away," said Kimberly.

Tommy winced inwardly; just from the sound of her voice he could tell how bad it really was. Fortunately, it seemed Aisha had no intentions of following Kimberly's instructions. The door swung wide open, revealing Aisha and Trini, both of whom wore grateful smiles at seeing their former leader.

"How is she?" asked Tommy, so that only the two former Yellow Rangers could hear him. Both women frowned sadly. "That bad, huh?"

Trini nodded and was the first to reply. "I've never seen her like this. She usually runs out of tears after a few minutes, but she hasn't stopped crying since it all happened. Oh Tommy, I feel so terrible. Between Aisha and I, we've always been able to find a way to cheer her up, but now it's just—"

"Do you think you can talk to her?" said Aisha, a clear hint of hopefulness evident in her voice.

"Why is he still here?" shouted Kimberly.

This time Tommy's wince was outward, noticed by Aisha and Trini, both of whom looked at him apologetically. But Tommy didn't need to hear it; he knew right away that Kimberly's words were a product of her heartbreak and not just his presence.

"I sure hope so," Tommy murmured to Aisha. "Can I come in?"

Aisha smiled, nodding as she said, "Yeah," and then turned to Trini. "Come on," she continued, taking Trini's arm, leading the way out of the room. "We'll leave you two alone."

Tommy nodded appreciatively and quietly slipped passed them into the room. His strength, however, disappeared the moment he saw Kimberly curled up on the bed, still wearing her wedding dress; her normally soft, entrancing doe brown eyes—what little he could see of them, that is—were now a horrid, bloodshot shade of red, her face stained from running makeup after many hours spent crying those same eyes out.

"Hey," he murmured, using the hallway wall to keep himself supported.

"What the hell do you want?" Kimberly demanded, not even bothering to look up at him. "Aisha, I told you to tell him to go away!"

"Aisha's gone."

"Trini—"

"So is Trini."

"Traitors," Kimberly muttered, still not looking Tommy's way.

Covering his mouth, Tommy suppressed the urge to chuckle. Taking a deep breath, he quietly started to cross the room, his heart shattering more and more with each passing moment he spent looking at this crushed and broken version of Kimberly, so far away from the happy-go-lucky woman she usually was.

"Kim, I'm—"

"Here to say 'I told you so?'" said Kimberly, shaking her head, laughing in such a hysterically saddened way that it made the hair on Tommy's neck stand on end. "Well, newsflash Tommy, I already know what a complete idiot I am; Jeff made that pretty clear at the wedding. I really _don't_ need you coming in here and rubbing it in my face, so why don't you do us both a favor and just leave, okay?"

"Kim—" Tommy tried again, only to be interrupted once more.

"Leave, Tommy, now."

Folding his arms across his chest, Tommy shook his head. "I'm sorry, Kim, but I can't do that."

At last, the former Pink Ranger raised her eyes to meet Tommy's, but almost instantly he wished that she had not. The expression she wore…Tommy had never seen a person look at him with greater disdain than Kimberly was currently doing. Then she was on her feet, walking towards him faster than he had ever seen her move before.

"Dammit, Tommy, I said get out! Get out, get out, get out!" shouted Kimberly. Tommy flinched but remained firm. Even when she started hitting him, beating her fists against his chest and arms, Tommy stayed stoic, allowing her to take out her frustrations and anger on him. "I hate you, Tommy, I hate you! Just leave me the hell alone and let me be miserable! That's what you wanted, right, me alone and without Jeff? Well you got your wish, alright! Go celebrate your victory somewhere else!"

"There's nothing to celebrate, because I didn't win anything, Kim," Tommy whispered, grimacing when she connected with a particularly powerful blow to his right bicep. "You're stronger than I remember."

"You're an asshole!" Kimberly replied through gritted teeth. "Just like every other guy: Jeff; my dad; all you men fucking care about if your goddamned selves! I hate you all, each and every one of you pathetic pieces of shit!"

"I understand you're upset, Kim, but—"

"Awesome observation, Tommy," Kimberly scoffed, rolling her eyes. "They teach you that one in geriatric Power Rangers' school? How to overstate the obvious in situations where it's completely unnecessary!?"

She cocked back for another punch, but Tommy finally decided that this beating had gone on long enough. When she swung the next time, Tommy caught her wrist and held it tightly; not enough to inflict pain, but enough to render her right fist useless. Then she tried the left and was met with the same result, only this time Tommy pulled her in so that she was but mere inches away from his chest.

He looked down at her angrily determined expression, heard her breathing heavily, and said in a near whisper, "I am so, so sorry, Kim. It's common knowledge I didn't like Jeff, but I never, _ever_, would have wished this kind of pain on you. All I've ever wanted where you're concerned is to see you happy."

Kimberly opened her mouth to argue, but found herself unable to speak as Tommy suddenly wrapped his arms around her, holding her against his chest. She fought the urge to crumble, to simply melt into his arms and allow him to take her pain away, but doing so was much harder than she had anticipated. His embrace felt so perfect, she just could not bring herself to push back any further. Her arms found their way around his waist and that was how they stayed for quite some time; Kimberly crying against his chest, Tommy refusing to even consider the notion of releasing his hold on her.

Her body relaxed considerably in that time, though her grasp on Tommy still remained firm, as if letting go of him would have surely spelled the end of her very existence. How long they stayed like that she did not know: seconds, minutes, hours; time made little sense at the moment, but soon enough she could feel herself slipping away. There was just something about being in his arms that felt right, even after everything that had happened, like no pain in the world could touch her as long as Tommy was there for her to hold on to.

He was really there, she mused silently as her eyes slowly fluttered shut, just like everyone had always told her he would be; but even as she smiled against his chest, she still had to know, needed to know more than anything else in the world.

"Why?" said Kimberly, breaking the long silence, her voice soft and distant.

"Why what, Kim?" said Tommy, his chin resting atop her head as he rubbed up and down her back as gently as he could manage.

"Why are you still here after everything I did to you? Why can't you just—" Kimberly yawned loudly, "—leave me alone?"

Tommy's brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed; that was a question he had not been expecting, one he did not readily have an answer to. He had to think about it for a few minutes, but Kimberly seemed content to give him as much time as he needed so long as he didn't let go of her.

"I guess it's because," he started, pausing to regain his thoughts; this was harder than he had anticipated. "Because I can't stand to see you hurt like this; because seeing you in any amount of pain, no matter how big or small, tears me up inside; because I never stopped caring about you; because I never stopped loving you."

It felt selfish to say those words at a time like this, and Tommy waited with baited breath for Kimberly to pull back, knowing with absolute certainty that he had crossed the line; but it never came. Silence filled the room, interrupted only by the occasional breath from he or Kimberly. Then he heard the most glorious sound, one that made him chuckle very, very quietly; a snore.

Arms wrapped around his waist, her body slouched forward with her head against his chest, Kimberly was fast asleep. Smiling to himself, Tommy took the utmost care not to wake her as he gently lifted her off her feet and carried her to the bed. He thought about searching for pajamas, but decided that attempting to remove Kimberly's wedding dress was a bad idea, no matter how good and platonic his intentions were. Surely Aisha and Trini would be back before long and they would be able to help Kimberly into more comfortable sleeping attire.

After she had been tucked in, Tommy remained at the side of the bed, unable to do anything but look down at her and smile. It hurt to know that she was still in pain, that she would likely be a shell of her former self for at least a little while, but it helped just a tiny bit to know that he had done some small amount of good, at least enough to calm her down into her current state of peaceful slumber.

Eventually, though, Tommy found himself growing tired as well. Stifling a yawn, he swooped down and placed a single, soft kiss to Kimberly's forehead. "Goodnight, Beautiful," he murmured. "Sleep well."

He hit the light switch on his way out, leaving the room shrouded in darkness as he stepped back into the hallway. Inside the room, the lump beneath the bed sheets had just rolled over to face the closed door. Her first real, genuine smile since the wedding disaster crossed Kimberly's lips. "Goodnight, Handsome," she whispered sleepily. "Thank you for everything."


	2. The Rock Show

_**Title: Left at the Altar**_

_**Summary: It was supposed to be Kimberly Hart's perfect day, but as she learned a long time ago, perfect days are rare for Power Rangers, even former Power Rangers on the day they are to be married. Luckily, there's someone out there who's more than willing to help her at her time of greatest need.**_

_**Chapter 2 - "The Rock Show"**_

_**Original Posting Date: February , 2009**_

_--_

Flipping through page after page of paper with a red pen in hand, Tommy was currently attempting to grade as much of his third period class's Geology homework as was possible before the bell rang on this particular Friday afternoon. Normally Tommy combed through each sheet rather carefully, but today was his birthday for crying out loud. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the weekend of his twenty-eighth birthday grading homework, even if he still did not have any plans to celebrate the occasion.

But even though it was his birthday, Tommy could not help but feel somewhat disappointed at the way the day had gone so far. Sure, he had heard from quite a few people: his parents and all three living grandparents; his brother, David, and Sam; Jason and almost all of the other Rangers, including those from the Dino Thunder team and Hayley; but there were two people who had not called, emailed, or sent text messages, yet only one of them was currently causing the bulk of his disappointment.

It wasn't Katherine.

No, either Katherine was keeping a very good secret or she was simply choosing to ignore his birthday altogether. Truthfully, neither option would have surprised Tommy at this point. They had been on particularly shaky ground ever since he had left her in their hotel room with his car keys a month and a half ago; but while the ground was definitely shaky, it had yet to cave in completely. Their relationship was still hanging on somehow, albeit just barely. How it was even possible, Tommy dared not even venture a guess.

Deep down, he honestly did not know why he and Katherine were still together. More and more since Kimberly's wedding day disaster it was becoming apparent to Tommy that he and Katherine simply weren't meant to be together. He just did not have the heart to say it to her face, not after the way she had so wonderfully repaired his broken heart following its decimation at the hands of the same woman whom he had surprisingly found himself spending increasing amounts of time with these past forty or so days.

It had felt quite strange at first, hanging out with Kimberly on something of a regular basis, but the awkwardness had disappeared somewhere around their third round of laser tag, replaced with a sense of wonderful genuineness that could have only been shared by two people who had been through so very much together. They were, whether either of them realized it or not, on the fast track to becoming the best and closest of friends all over again.

Grinning to himself at the thought of Kimberly, Tommy looked up to insure that no one in his class was cheating on their tests, then returned his eyes to the homework in front of him, repeating the pattern for close to thirty minutes before he was interrupted upon hearing what sounded like something rumbling coming from inside his desk. Careful not to let his class see what he was doing, Tommy retrieved his phone and quietly flipped it open beneath his desk, his eyes glimmering slightly as they skimmed across the screen.

_Hey you,_ it read, Tommy smiling after a mere two words. _Just wanted to wish you a happy birthday, you big bad 28 year old you._

Quite ironic, Tommy mused to himself, that he had only just been thinking about Kimberly and it was she who had sent him the birthday text message. He fought hard to conceal his grin as he typed out a thank you, complete with a smiley face made of punctuation marks that had taken him a good two minutes to figure out, and then slipped his phone into his pants pocket only to pull it right back out when it started vibrating against his leg less than a minute later.

_You're welcome,_ it read, accompanied by a punctuation face that left Tommy scratching his head in confusion, so much so that he was forced to disrupt his class before he finished reading the message.

"Okay, five bonus points on the test for the whole class if one of you can tell me what a colon, a hyphen, and a capital 'P' means," said Tommy, and all at once the hands of nearly everyone in his class shot into the air. He had his answer moments later, returning his eyes to his phone to finish reading her message as his class went back to their tests.

_Any meetings or plans after work?_

Tommy furrowed his brow slightly, typing out a "No, why?" as he wondered what Kimberly had up her sleeve. They may have only just started to get close again, but Tommy knew her well enough to know that she would not have asked the question without a legitimate reason. Whether or not she decided to tell him her reason was the real question.

_No reason. TTYL Tommy,_ she replied, so quickly it had Tommy wondering how it was humanly possible for a person to text so damn fast. Unfortunately, for the rest of the period his thoughts were completely and utterly distracted. When the bell rang fifteen minutes later, signaling the end classes for the week, Tommy had only made it through two more sheets of homework, unable to focus for more than a few seconds at a time on anything except what it was exactly that Kimberly was up to.

Tommy remained calm as his students turned in their tests and exited his classroom, but as soon as they were gone he started a mad rush to pack his things. He left the room just shy of two minutes later and immediately pulled out his phone, dialing Kimberly's number as he started the short walk to the teacher's parking lot and his Jeep, which had been returned to him in the exact scenario he had predicted after the failed wedding.

He listened patiently as it rang, rolling his eyes and flipping his phone shut when the line went to voicemail somewhere after the seventh or eighth ring. Then he flipped his phone back open and called her again, simply because the nature of the second text message had him feeling like she was avoiding him on purpose. Just as he started down the steps to the teacher's lot, right after the second ring, his assumptions were confirmed in the form of Kimberly sitting on the hood of his Jeep, looking directly at him.

Even from two-hundred-plus feet away, dressed ever so casually in a white tank top, denim short shorts, and a pink baseball cap, Tommy still found her to be strikingly beautiful. Shaking his head, he pointed to the phone still pressed against his ear, as if to ask her why she was not answering his call. Kimberly's response came in the form of a nonchalant shoulder shrug, followed by her hopping down from her seat atop his Jeep, standing there with her arms folded across her chest in faux impatience.

"You're on sundial and you need to be on stopwatch!" she yelled to him across the parking lot.

Tommy rolled his eyes and laughed, but did not reply right away, waiting until he was a bit closer to her before doing so. "Do I even want to know how you found where I work?" he asked teasingly.

"Probably not. It was pretty hard," said Kimberly, grinning. "You'll never believe what I went through to find you. It's a good thing I'm such a good detective, though, what with there only being one high school in all of Reefside, that is."

"Ha-ha," said Tommy sarcastically, leaning against the grill of his Jeep. "Thanks again for the birthday message. For a while there I was actually starting to wonder if my bad memory had rubbed of on you too."

Kimberly laughed and asked, "What do you mean, 'you too?'"

The smile on Tommy's face was wiped away at once as he told Kimberly that he had yet to hear from Katherine and was seemingly spending the evening alone. Regardless of the way things were between he and Katherine, it still stung slightly to know that he had almost made it through the entire day without so much as a call or text message from her. They were, after all, still a couple, though that term was one he was using loosely more and more whenever he spoke of their relationship.

"I'm sorry," said Kimberly, patting his arm, not really sure what else to say. Part of her wanted to give him advice, to guide him one way or another, but another part told her to remain silent, that it was not her place to be giving Tommy advice anymore. Either way, Tommy's revelation that he had no plans for the evening had played in perfectly to Kimberly's reason for showing up at the high school unannounced.

"So you just decided to get in your car and drive an hour to see me, huh?" asked Tommy, raising a curious eyebrow as Kimberly nodded. His smile returned almost instantly, quite impish in nature as he asked, "Why?"

"To give you this," said Kimberly, reaching into the back pocket of her shorts. She pulled out a long white envelope and handed it over to Tommy with a smile. "Happy birthday, Tommy."

Tommy looked somewhat confused as he reached out and hesitantly took the envelope, looking back and forth between the parcel and Kimberly as if unsure what to do with it. His fingers found the seal and carefully ripped it away, revealing a single, thin black-and-white piece of cardboard inside the envelope.

"What is this?" he asked.

"See for yourself," said Kimberly eagerly; the air of excitement in both posture and gesture was undeniable as she watched Tommy remove the contents of the envelope, scanning his gift with ever widening eyes.

"You're serious?" said Tommy, grinning, Kimberly nodding as he smacked the thin piece of cardboard against his open palm. "You sure this isn't a joke? I mean, I can't…I can't believe you would do something like this for me."

"It's no big deal," Kimberly replied, shrugging noncommittally. "Anyways, I take it you like it?"

Chuckling, Tommy nodded his confirmation and said, "This is so awesome, Kim. I honestly don't even know what to say to you right now. I wanted to buy tickets for this show so bad when they went on sale, but I—" He paused there for a very brief moment, changing his entire train of thought before Kimberly could realize it, continuing with, "—just never got around to doing it, I guess."

"Well, I remembered how much you used to love blink-182 back when we were in high school, and when I heard they were playing in Surfside I just knew that I had to get you tickets," said Kimberly, smiling just because, for as long as she could remember, seeing Tommy so happy had always seemed to have that effect on her.

"Tickets?" said Tommy. "As in plural?"

Kimberly's smile became slightly sheepish as she reached into her other back pocket and pulled out the other ticket in question, holding it up for Tommy to see. "Call me selfish, but I want to see them too."

Tommy laughed as he started to look the ticket over for a second time, this time more carefully than the last. "It's tonight?" he murmured, raising his eyes to meet Kimberly's.

"Yeah," said Kimberly, feeling her smile dissipate a bit. "I mean, I knew I was taking a bit of a risk by buying the tickets without really knowing if you already had plans or not, but I figured if you couldn't go I'd just go by myself and try to scalp the ticket. I guess things worked out for the best though, didn't they?"

"Err…" Tommy started, not really knowing what to say. He definitely wanted to go to the concert, even moreso now that he knew Kimberly was going, but still, at the same time if Katherine did have something planned and he was not in attendance for it, it would certainly cause a major breakdown, more trouble than he honestly wanted to have to deal with on his birthday weekend.

"You don't want to go?" said Kimberly, raising an eyebrow at him.

"No, it's not that," said Tommy, shaking his head. "It's just, if Kat…"

Tommy's voice trailed off at that point, his eyes unable to meet Kimberly's; a good thing too, considering the disappointment in them was visibly obvious. He was trying to do what he thought to be the right thing by not committing to Kimberly, but found out rather quickly that doing so was a much harder process than he had anticipated it being. Even if Katherine _did_ have something planned, the honest to goodness truth was that he simply could not think of a more enjoyable way to spend his twenty-eighth birthday: with a few man sodas, one of his favorite bands, and one of his closest friends. It was with those thoughts in mind that he raised his eyes to Kimberly once more.

"You know what?" he continued, with a half-chuckle. "I'm gonna go. Regardless of whether she has something planned for me or not, the least she could have done was call to wish me happy birthday."

All at once Kimberly felt her disappointment leave, pure happiness and excitement returning in full force. Their relationship was completely platonic, but the thought of spending the entire evening with Tommy was enough to have her grinning from ear-to-ear. He had helped her so much this past month and a half; it seemed like every time they were together, no matter how long or short it was, a little bit of the pain that Jeff had caused disappeared, erased into a land of blissful nothingness.

"Tell you what," said Kimberly, slipping her ticket back into her pocket. "The show starts at seven-thirty and it's gonna take us at least an hour or so to get there. Go home and change, or do whatever, and I'll be there to pick you up at five. How does that sound to you?"

Tommy looked down at his wristwatch before giving his answer; it was almost three-thirty. "That sounds great," he answered, smiling brightly. "Just call me when you're close and I'll come outside, okay?"

"Okay," said Kimberly, nodding. "I guess I'll see you at five then."

"I guess so," said Tommy, surprising Kimberly slightly when he opened his arms for a hug. "Thanks for the ticket, Kim," he added as she wrapped her arms around his waist.

The hug lasted only a matter of seconds, but what little time they spent in embrace was all that it took to remind Kimberly of how wonderful it felt to be so close to Tommy. Right away she was taken back to the night of her wedding day disaster. He had been so good to her that night, allowing her to take out her frustration and anger on him, both verbally and physically.

That's just the type of man he is, Kimberly reminded herself. Regardless of how old or far apart they were, or where their relationship stood at various intervals of their lives, Tommy had always been more than willing to put her feelings above his own, even at the expense of a bruised chest and two equally black-and-blue arms; which Kimberly had deduced to be the reason why he had not brought up his confession of love since that night in her hotel room.

And she was right in assuming this, too. Tommy, of course, still believed that Kimberly had fallen asleep before hearing what he had to say. To tell her again when he was certain that she was listening was an act he simply could not bring himself to complete, no matter how badly he wanted to. To put that kind of pressure on her. so soon after everything had happened, was just not fair to her; at least not in Tommy's eyes, anyway.

Once their hug had broken the pair bade each other farewell. Tommy climbed into his Jeep, Kimberly into the silver sports car parked next to him, and with that they were off. Kimberly followed Tommy out of the parking lot, punching a number into her cell phone as she drove, but not dialing it until she and Tommy, with one last wave goodbye, turned their separate ways at a nearby stop sign. As soon as he was out of sight, however, the phone was at her ear.

"Let me guess," said Aisha, after the line had clicked, "You're going."

"How'd you know?" asked Kimberly, rolling her eyes.

"Because you wouldn't be calling me this soon if he hadn't said yes," Aisha answered with a laugh. "If he had said no you'd still be too busy scheming a way to talk him into it to be calling little ole me."

"You know me too well, 'Sha," said Kimberly, sharing in Aisha's laughter.

"You there, Kim?" said Aisha, several seconds later.

Silence had befallen them for a few moments as Kimberly thought of what she wanted to say next, for her emotions were far too complicated at the moment for her to be certain about anything. "Yeah, I'm here," she murmured, turning onto an avenue called Chestnut. She had no real destination, so she had decided to just drive around aimlessly for awhile, exploring Reefside until she needed to be at Tommy's house. "I can't explain it, 'Sha. I mean, I've got butterflies in my stomach for crying out loud! The last time I felt this nervous about something…God, it must have been right before our first real date together."

"Girl, are you being serious right now?" asked Aisha, the surprise evident in her voice.

Kimberly laughed. "Yeah, I am."

"Wow," Aisha breathed, their conversation falling into a brief lapse of silence once more. "Kim, you know I hate to even bring this up, but can you honestly say that you're more nervous now then you were before the wed—I mean, well, you know—can you? I'm not trying to bring you down or anything, girl, but you and Tommy are just friends, right?"

An audible sigh escaped Kimberly's lips, unknowingly causing Aisha's ears to perk up on the other end of the line. If Kimberly knew for certain where she and Tommy stood, her answer to Aisha's question would have been immediate. Her hesitation, no matter how brief, told Aisha everything she needed to know, long before she actually heard Kimberly say the words.

"Honestly, 'Sha, I'm not sure what's going on between us right now," said Kimberly. "I'm single now, Tommy's not really happy with the way things are going between he and Kat—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold the phone there for just a second, girl," Aisha interrupted. "What makes you think Tommy's not happy with Kat?"

Again, Kimberly sighed. "I can just tell, okay. I can't explain it, I've just…for as long as I can remember, I've always been able to read Tommy perfectly. When he talks about Kat, all I have to do is see his eyes to know that he's unhappy. Besides, how would you feel if it was three-thirty in the afternoon on _your_ birthday and you hadn't even heard from Rocky yet?"

"I would that say he had better have a damn good reason, and even better chocolate and jewelry when his ass got home," said Aisha, she and Kimberly sharing another laugh. "But that's beside the point," she added hastily. "Let's just say that you're right about Tommy and Kat, that he isn't very happy and all of that jazz. What are you going to do? Please don't take this the wrong way, sweets, but from the outside looking in, it kind of sounds like your both a little bit on the vulnerable side right now."

"I'm not vulnerable, 'Sha," Kimberly replied firmly.

"Yes you are, Kim. I know you don't want to hear it, but it's the truth, and it's nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone is vulnerable after a major breakup where you've committed so much of yourself to another person. That goes for both men and women," said Aisha, earning a silent eye roll from Kimberly. "Like I said, Kim, I'm not trying to bring you down here. I just don't want to see you get hurt again, that's all."

Kimberly opened her mouth to reply, but shut it just as quickly, forcing herself to take a series of slow, calming breaths before speaking again. Being told how to live her life, no matter how good the intentions behind the advice were, had never been something that Kimberly was very acceptive of. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate the advice, she simply preferred to live life her own way, make—and learn from—her own mistakes.

"I appreciate that, Aisha," said Kimberly, after a handful of silent moments had passed, trying not to sound tight. "But I know what I'm doing here," she continued, a lie if there ever was one. "Right now Tommy and I are just friends. Hell, we're still getting to know each other after not being close for so long, and to be quite honest, I think it's going to be awhile before either of us could even really think about being anything more than friends. Plus, I'm not just going to hop into something when I have no clue what I want, especially not where Tommy's concerned. I care about him too much to do that.

"Since we've been getting close again and everything, I've started to realize more and more just how much I really enjoy having him in my life. Even though we're just friends, when Tommy and I are together he just has this way about him of making me feel like I'm the most special girl on the whole planet; like we could be surrounded by an army of naked Playboy Bunnies and he wouldn't even notice. I know it sounds cheesy and lame, but it's the truth. No one has ever made me feel quite the way Tommy makes me feel inside."

"Girl," said Aisha, letting out a chuckle. "It sounds to me like you got a case of the love bug."

"I don't know what it is, 'Sha, and I'm not really in any hurry to find out, either," said Kimberly. "Like I said before, I'm not going to rush into anything with Tommy. For now, I'm content with just spending time with him, getting to know him again. If something else ends up happening in the process then, well, frankly I'm not really sure what I'll do, just that if it does then I'll deal with it at that time. That's as far ahead as I'm willing to think right now."

Aisha echoed her agreement with Kimberly's decision, the conversation turning much more casual from there. They were in the midst of discussing the latest edition of French Vogue a few minutes later when the former Yellow Ranger was forced to hang up upon receiving an incoming call on her work line. Kimberly said her goodbyes and then dropped her phone into her purse, watching the road with a smile on her face and butterflies in her stomach.

--

Tiny droplets of water cascaded down Tommy's still-damp body as he stepped out of his bathroom and into the bedroom, clean and freshly shaven. Wearing only a towel wrapped around his waist, he walked over to the bed, retrieved the television remote, turned on HBO, and immediately rolled his eyes upon hearing his phone beeping at him from the nightstand. He quickly snatched the phone from its resting place and flipped the device open to find that he had two missed calls, a voicemail, and a text message; all of them were from Katherine, all within the past five minutes, the voicemail and text both asking where he was and what he was doing.

Tommy closed his phone and tossed it onto his bed without bothering to return either of the messages, mostly because he was fairly certain that this meant Katherine had indeed planned some kind of surprise for him. To call her now and tell her that he had already made plans with Kimberly would surely lead to an argument the likes of which he was simply not prepared to deal with on the night of his birthday.

Still, it did not seem fair to leave Katherine completely hanging like that. In a matter of moments he had decided that he would just call her before he left, tell her that his parents had called and suckered him into dinner or something like that; coming up with stories on a whim was one of the many skills he had acquired as a Ranger that he would forever be grateful for. Surprisingly, he didn't feel even the slightest bit bad about his plan, either.

Checking the clock on his nightstand revealed that he had just under thirty minutes before Kimberly was set to arrive. Up until he had seen Katherine's many attempts to contact him, the only thing Tommy had been able to think about since leaving school was his impending evening with Kimberly. His heart raced with excitement, while his stomach seemed to be knotted multiple times over in sheer, unadulterated nervousness, the kind of nervousness he had not experienced in many, many years. Very few things had ever been able to make him feel as nervous as a date with Kimberly always seemed to do.

"It's not a date," Tommy reminded himself aloud, heading towards the door to his walk-in closet across the room. "You guys are just friends…just friends."

Tommy emerged from his closet twenty minutes later, looking somewhere in between disgruntled and downright pleased with himself. Acquiring the khaki shorts that he now wore had been like finding a needle in a haystack, taking up most of the time he had spent in his closet, but eventually finding them had led to a very loud cry of victory that Tommy was sure the neighbors would have heard if he had had any of those in the first place. His shoes were of the "skateboard" variety—black and white Vans—even though he had not owned a skateboard since the age of seven, while his black t-shirt stated that it was from blink-182's 2001 _Take Off Your Pants and Jacket Tour._

But in his extended mission to find his favorite shorts, he had forgotten all about calling Katherine back. By the time he had finished getting dressed, gathered his personal items, brushed his teeth, and re-styled his hair, Kimberly was already calling to tell him that she was five minutes away and to come outside. Had anybody been there to see him, Tommy's excitement would have been blatantly obvious as he bounded out of his room, down the hallway, and to the front door.

He pulled the door open and gasped, his heart skipping a beat when he saw Katherine standing on the porch, her fist raised as though she had been in the midst of knocking. All at once he saw his evening collapse into shambles; either way he was going to the concert, he just didn't want an argument hanging over his head the whole time, making it impossible to enjoy what was supposed to be a fun, relaxed excursion with Kimberly.

"Going somewhere?" said Katherine, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Err…yeah, I am, actually," said Tommy, scratching the back of his neck as he stepped out of his house onto the porch. "What's up?"

"Where are you going?"

Tommy faltered visibly, opening and closing his mouth so rapidly that a three year-old would have been able to notice his hesitation. "I, uh, I'm going to the blink-182 concert in Surfside," he managed after a few silent moments.

"The blink-182 concert?" Katherine repeated, Tommy nodding his head. "Who are you going to see them with?"

"Kimberly," said Tommy, bracing himself for the blowup that he knew was only seconds away from happening.

All at once the color drained from Katherine's eyes; her normally calm blue eyes became like fire as she started at Tommy with a piercing gaze, forcing him to wince inwardly. The second her mouth opened once more, Tommy became fully aware that this process was not going to be an easy one at all.

"Kimberly," Katherine muttered tightly.

"Yeah," said Tommy, waiting with baited breath.

"I see," she continued, sizing him up with her eyes like a boxer at the start of the first round. "And you just decided to go with Kimberly, completely ignoring the fact that your girlfriend _might_ have wanted to spend your birthday with you?"

Tommy fought the urge to roll his eyes and said, "I didn't ignore that, Kat. In fact, I actually gave it a lot of thought, so much so that I almost said no, but it was three-thirty and you hadn't even sent me so much as a text message. You wanna talk about taking other people's feelings into consideration, well how do you think I feel standing here at five o'clock, hearing from you for the first time, on my birthday of all days?"

"Oh don't give me that crap, Tommy!" Katherine snapped, a confused expression forming on Tommy's face. "And don't give me that look either! It seems like every time I call you to get together you're busy, and ninety-nine percent of the time it's because you're with Kim. What's going on between you two? You're fucking her, aren't you?"

Had a clear sense of respect for women not been instilled in him at such an early age, Tommy might have lost it right then and there. Instead he forced himself to remain calm through a series of deep breaths, while silently wishing that he still had Rita Repulsa's bestowed ability to make his eyes flash green.

"I can't believe you're actually asking me that, Kat. This is _me _we're talking about here," said Tommy, shaking his head. "The fact that that you're even asking me is just…ridiculous. I honestly can't believe that you have that little faith in me."

"Is that a no?" questioned Katherine, unfazed.

This time the urge to roll his eyes was too much to suppress. "Yes," said Tommy, the exasperation and anger he was feeling evident in his voice and demeanor. "You're unbelievable, you know that? After all the years we've been together, everything we've gone through, you actually think I would cheat on you?"

It was Katherine's turn to hesitate this time. The truth was that she did not think Tommy was cheating on her at all. The question had merely slipped out, and she regretted it now that Tommy had called her on it, but the damage had already been done. Before she could even start to formulate a response, Tommy was speaking once more.

"You know what, I think I get it now. You're not upset because I made other plans on my birthday, you're mad because I made other plans with Kim. Ever since she and I started hanging out again, whenever I even mention her name you immediately start to get weird. If you ask me, I think you're actually jealous of Kim. You just can't stand the fact that there's another female out there who I enjoy spending any considerable length of time with."

"Jealous? You think I'm jealous?" said Katherine, looking quite appalled at the thought. "You're out of you're damn mind if you actually think _I'm_ jealous. I just think it's silly how you seem to be so eager to get your heart broken all over again, because we both know that is what will happen in the end."

Laughing was not how Tommy expected to find himself at this point, but laughing he was doing nonetheless. "Thanks for trying to be my mom, Kat, but I already have one of those. I'm a big boy now, and even though you clearly don't think it, I _am_ capable of wiping my own ass. The simple fact of the matter, whether you're willing to admit it or not, is that you're jealous. Oh, and just a little newsflash for you, Kat; green is my color, and the envious-bullshit look doesn't suit you at all."

The thunderous _crack!_ that followed Tommy's assessment left him touching his stinging cheek in disbelief, staring at Katherine with his mouth agape, wondering whether or not the slap he felt had actually just happened. The burning in her eyes, however, answered his question long before he needed to ask it out loud.

"Cat got the kitty's tongue so you use your claws instead, huh? Real mature, Kat," he continued, rubbing his cheek gingerly as he turned his head slightly, a glimmer of silver sliding its way into his peripheral vision. Kimberly was parked at the foot of the driveway; how long she had been there he was not sure, but he knew it had to have been long enough for her to see that he and Katherine were in the midst of a major argument. All at once his entire face became beet red as he turned back to Katherine, not from the slap, but from the embarrassment he felt at being caught by Kimberly in such a childish predicament. "You know what, I can see that this conversation is going nowhere so I'm just going to leave now. Enjoy your night, Katherine," he added, turning to leave.

"Thomas James Oliver," said Katherine, causing Tommy to freeze mid-step. Full names always seemed to mean business. "You go tonight and we're done…f-for good this time, too."

Clearly caught off guard, Tommy slowly turned back and raised his eyebrows at her. "You're serious?" he muttered.

"As a heart attack."

"Fine," Tommy sighed after a few moments, stuffing his hands into his pockets as Katherine grinned triumphantly. Then he added, "I guess I'll box up whatever stuff you left over here and bring it by your place some time next week."

This time, when he turned to leave it was for good. Katherine did not say anything else, leaving him fairly certain that she was currently staring at his back with her mouth hanging wide open in shock, trying to process the fact that he had actually chosen Kimberly, the friend, over herself, Katherine, the girlfriend.

No sooner had he reached Kimberly's car, opened the door, and climbed into the passenger seat then she was turning towards him with a look of concern on her face. Almost instantly he knew what she was going to say to him long before the words came out of her mouth.

"Tommy, if you need to stay and work things out with Kat I'll understand," said Kimberly. "I mean, she's your girl—"

"She's not my girlfriend," Tommy interrupted firmly, dropping his voice to a murmur as he continued, "Not anymore…and not ever again. Let's go."

Kimberly eyed him curiously for a few moments, but was forced to concede when he refused to look anywhere except straight out the window. She resisted the urge to look Katherine's way as she backed out, pulling away from Tommy's house with a slight twinge of guilt at the whole situation. Somewhere deep down, Kimberly could not help but feel like she had somehow been the cause of it all.

"You okay?" asked Kimberly, deeming three minutes of silent driving to be long enough.

Finally, Tommy looked her way, smiling as he did so. "You know what?" he replied, shaking his head. "I think I am. I left school today with every intention of having an awesome night, at a kick ass show, with a great friend, and that is exactly what I'm going to do. I'm not going to let what happened back there ruin my birthday; and I'm sorry you had to see that in the first place. I felt like an idiot when I realized you were there."

"There's nothing to apologize for, Tommy. We all argue from time to time," said Kimberly, giving him a reassuring smile. "Besides, if anybody should be apologizing it's me, for not letting you know I was there. I thought about honking or calling, but I didn't want to make things worse, then I kind of just froze when I saw her, well—"

"Slap me?" Tommy finished, and Kimberly nodded slightly. "Yeah, well, it didn't feel all that great to be honest."

"What did you say to make her do that?" Kimberly questioned, regretting the question at once as she silently cursed herself for that terrible habit she had acquired from her mother of sticking her nose in places where it really did not belong.

Tommy let out a deep, heavy sigh. "I really don't want to talk about it right now, Kim," he answered, his eyes fluttering shut then popping back open almost immediately. "I don't even want to think about it, to be honest, because the more I do the more it's going to bug me, until eventually I just explode."

"Of course," said Kimberly hastily. "I shouldn't have even asked. I didn't mean to pry."

Turning towards her, Tommy flashed another smile. "Don't worry, Kim, I don't see it as prying. You're just concerned, that's all. That's what friends do, right?"

"Yeah, I guess it is," Kimberly replied, smiling as well. "So listen," she continued, deciding to steer the conversation in another direction, "blink doesn't come on until seven-thirty so I thought we could stop and get a bite to eat before the show since concert food is so damn expensive. If you haven't already eaten, of course."

"No, I haven't," said Tommy, touching his empty stomach. "I was so busy grading homework at lunch that I completely forgot to eat." At the first signs of a smirk on her face, Tommy quickly pointed his finger at Kimberly and added, "Ah, don't you even think about saying it. I already know I have a bad memory. It's the one thing I can never seem to forget, seeing as how no one ever lets me."

Kimberly chuckled at that as they merged onto the freeway. "That's because you're bad memory is, like, your one bad quality, Tommy," said Kimberly, shaking her head. "It's hard to pick on you for anything else when there isn't even anything there to pick on in the first place."

"Yeah right," said Tommy, with a roll of his eyes. "I have tons of bad qualities."

"Oh yeah, like what?"

"How about the fact that I've come out of retirement more times than Michael Jordan and Bob Dylan combined?"

This time it was Kimberly who rolled her eyes as she said, "Oh yeah, because wanting to save the world from being enslaved or destroyed is _such_ a bad quality. Can you imagine, a person who actually cares about other people? God, I would absolutely hate to be friends with a person like that."

"Fine, fine, you got me on that one," said Tommy, laughing as he waived his hands in defeat. "But I still have other bad qualities besides my forgetfulness. I'm rarely on time for anything except work, although I guess that can kind of get thrown in with being forgetful, huh?"

Kimberly nodded. "It is what it is, Tommy."

"Alright, alright," he conceded with a grin. "So where do you want to go to eat?"

"I don't know," Kimberly shrugged, looking his way. "I've only been to Surfside a few times so I really don't even know what's out there. You know the area a lot better than I do, plus it's your birthday; you choose. Oh, by the way, I'm paying and that's all there is to it."

"You know, usually I would argue with you, but screw it, it's my birthday," said Tommy, he and Kimberly sharing a laugh. "There's a Chili's a couple miles away from the amphitheatre. We can just go there."

"Chili's it is then."

Just short of an hour later they slid into a booth at the Surfside Chili's, sitting across from each other in the restaurant's bar area. They had been seated for less than a minute when a teenaged waiter appeared at their table. The young man had barely said "Hi, my name—" before Tommy was out of his seat, dragging their waiter away from the table by his shirt, leaving Kimberly alone in the booth wearing a look of absolute shock.

"Here," Tommy muttered, slipping the kid a twenty-dollar bill. "It's nothing personal, just send someone else over, okay?"

The young man looked slightly confused at the request, wondering how he could have done something wrong before he had even made it through his greeting, but nodded his understanding and disappeared into the kitchen as Tommy returned to the booth and Kimberly's curiosity.

"What was that about?" she asked pointedly.

Tommy smiled. "Nothing," he replied, burying his face in the menu.

Kimberly furrowed her brow and started to say something, but was cutoff as another member of the wait staff, this one a slightly older female, emerged to take their drink orders. Once she was gone, Tommy made sure to keep Kimberly distracted, asking her anything he could think of to keep her mind away from questioning him as to why he had asked for a different server.

They were halfway through their meals and second drinks—a grilled chicken sandwich and margarita for Kimberly, a bacon cheeseburger and Red Stripe for Tommy—when Kimberly made to exit the booth, causing Tommy to raise his eyes towards her. "Bathroom?" he asked, in between bites of French fries.

"Yeah," said Kimberly, standing and pointing to where she had just been sitting. "Keep an eye on my purse, will you?"

Tommy followed her finger to her purse; it was on the seat and as close to the wall as possible, making it a highly unlikely target for any would be thieves, but he smiled and nodded nonetheless. He found himself unable to tear his eyes from her as she walked away, then found himself choking on his cheeseburger when he saw their would-be waiter servicing the table nearest the restrooms.

Stuck between choking and going after her, Tommy chose to deal with saving his own life with the silent hope that Kimberly would not pay close enough attention to the young man to notice anything, though he knew that that happening was equal in likeliness to her purse being stolen right out from under his nose. Kimberly was just far too curious a person not to at least make an attempt at figuring out what Tommy had been up to earlier.

When she suddenly stopped mid-stride, mere feet away from the restroom, Tommy wondered if she had figured it out, but she quickly disappeared without turning back. For nearly five minutes he was forced to sit there and stew, but Kimberly did not hesitate to give him his answer upon returning to the table.

"Thanks," Kimberly murmured, slightly misty eyed. "That was a really sweet thing to do, albeit a tad on the unnecessary side," she added with a laugh.

Tommy felt his face turn red as he attempted to shrug it off casually, saying, "It's no big deal, I just—"

"But it is a big deal, Tommy," said Kimberly firmly. "I mean, the fact that his nametag says _Jeff R._ is a creepy coincidence, and even though I know I could have dealt with it, just knowing that you were looking out for me like that means a lot to me."

"Err…you're welcome, but like I said, it's no big deal," Tommy replied, flashing her a quick smile. He hated getting compliments or even just being thanked in general; he usually never knew what to say when it happened. "I'm sure you would have done the same thing for me if it had been a waitress named Katherine."

"In a heartbeat," said Kimberly, nodding.

Lifting a French fry, Tommy lazily dipped it into the puddle of ketchup on his plate, moving it around in every direction imaginable. "I can't believe it's actually over for good," he murmured, surprising both he and Kimberly, simply because he had seemed so adamant about not wanting to talk about it before.

"What makes you so sure it's really over for good?" asked Kimberly, taking a sip from her margarita. "I mean, the way you talk about it, it sounds like breaking up and getting back together is pretty common for you guys."

"Yeah, well, she never went that far before," said Tommy, the tiniest hint of sadness in his voice. "I'm not just talking about the slap either. To be honest, we've kind of been drifting apart for a while now, probably a lot longer than either one of us was willing to admit, but what happened earlier really sealed the deal for me. Kat and I…we're just not meant to be together."

"What happened?"

Tommy sighed and took a long drink from his bottle before answering her. "I realized that she doesn't trust me, and I can't be with someone who doesn't even trust me to have another female friend." At the shocked and somewhat confused expression on Kimberly's face, he continued, "She told me I had to make a choice, your friendship or a relationship with her. Considering how dysfunctional our relationship was to begin with, the choice wasn't a very hard one to make."

Kimberly wanted to speak, to tell him how much that truly meant to her, but found that her vocal cords were being quite unresponsive at the moment; so she smiled brightly his way instead, hoping that this small gesture would convey to him everything that her words simply could not seem to do.

And it did. The smile on Kimberly's face was all that it took for what little of Tommy's lingering sadness from the breakup still remained to disappear completely. Then he was smiling as well, finding himself nowhere near as sad about the breakup as he thought he should be. Perhaps it was because they had done it so many times that he had finally become altogether numb to the whole process; or perhaps it was something else entirely, something he could not explain, but that somehow just felt…_right_.

--

Kimberly accepted her just-scanned ticket from the lady outside the Surfside Amphitheatre with a gracious smile, crossing through the turnstile to where Tommy stood on the other side, waiting for her with a look of visible excitement.

"Man," said Tommy, as he and Kimberly walked side by side along the outdoor concourse, passing booth after booth of every kind of vendor imaginable. "I still can't believe you managed to get floor seats. I've seen them twice, but I've never this up close before. I'm so stoked right now, you have no idea."

"Well, I had to pull a few strings to get them on such short notice, but it was the least I could do after everything you've done for me," said Kimberly, sharing a look with Tommy that said they both knew what she was talking about. "So," she continued, quick to change subjects, "you want a beer or something before we head down to our seats?"

"Only if you'll let me pay this time."

Kimberly laughed and shook her head. "No way, Tommy. I already told you, I'm not letting you pay for anything on your birthday, so don't even try to fight me on it, okay? You'll only make things harder on yourself."

Tommy narrowed his eyes, looking poised to argue, but conceded with a sigh. "Fine, have it your way," he chuckled, nudging her playfully as they entered one of the concession lines.

They chatted casually as they waited, joking and laughing like only the closest of friends could do. It was like nothing was off limits between them; they had been through so much together, knew so much about one another that falling into such a level of comfort was rather easy for the both of them. While both knew that things between them were slowly changing, Kimberly, who for so long had tried to distance herself from Tommy, seemed to be noticing this trend now more than ever.

If she was honest with herself, the whole situation was a bit odd, almost as though they were going through the same process they had gone through so many years ago, when she had shyly introduced herself to the new kid in front of his locker. There was something she just could not explain, something undeniably calming about Tommy's presence that made her wonder why she had even pushed him away in the first place.

Once they had reached the front of the line, Kimberly ordered and paid for two beers at a whopping seven dollars each, causing Tommy to wince outwardly as she handed over a twenty-dollar bill. He took the drink with a smile and thank you, falling back into step at Kimberly's side as they started for their seats once more.

"So, can I ask you something?" said Kimberly, after a few moments silence.

"Sure."

"When did you change?"

Turning his eyes to her, Tommy furrowed his brown in confusion and asked, "Uh, what exactly do you mean by that?"

Kimberly laughed. "Oh nothing, it's just, well…back in high school you would have rather jumped from your Falcon Zord at thirty-thousand feet while out of morph than actually let me pay for something. But the last two times I volunteered to pay, you barely even put up a fight."

Realizing that Kimberly's interpretation of his changing was not a bad thing, Tommy joined her in laughter and said, "After five years of constantly arguing with someone, you just learn when to pick your battles, I guess. Besides, would arguing have really done me any good? The Kim I knew in high school would have rather cut up her mother's credit cards than give in when she'd made her mind up about something."

"I'm not the same girl I was in high school, you know," Kimberly replied, still laughing heartily. It was infectious, and in the few short hours they had been together she had laughed more than she had in the last month.

Tommy smiled, nodded, and murmured, "I know you're not, but I can still see a lot of the old Kim that I used to know in there, and to be honest with you, I like it when you let her come out from time to time."

Blushing, Kimberly could do little more than smile, words escaping her once more as they stepped into the line of people making their way to their respective seats. As they soon found out, however, their seats were not really seats at all. They were on the floor, like their tickets said, but there wasn't a single chair between the two sets of guardrails set seventy-five feet apart that blocked off the floor area from the rest of the crowd, the bulk of whom sat on an incline that eventually led to lawn seating at the very top of the amphitheatre.

Arriving a few minutes into the opening act, a local band that neither had ever heard of, they were able to reach the part of the floor area nearest the stage, only a guardrail less than four feet separating them from where blink-182 would be in less than an hour.

"Wow, this is so awesome!" said Tommy, unable to believe how close they really were.

"Yeah," agreed Kimberly, nodding. "I just hope they tell their usual dick and fart jokes." Tommy's eyes went wide at that, followed by a burst of laughter that forced Kimberly to ask, "What's so funny?"

Trying to stifle his laughter, Tommy shook his head and said, "Nothing, I'm just trying to get over the fact that you actually just said 'dick and fart.' I don't think I've ever heard you say anything like that."

"Like I said earlier, Tommy," Kimberly replied, winking at him, "I'm not the same girl I was in high school."

Tommy's eyes glimmered slightly as the band on stage continued through their set. After a few songs, Tommy and Kimberly found themselves enjoying this little known band quite a bit, but resisted the urge to let loose completely, knowing they would need as much energy as possible come seven-thirty.

Unfortunately, what had been a great night so far turned sour when a fight broke out somewhere in the middle of the floor section. Tommy could barely hear all of the screaming and shouting over the pounding music, and for a brief moment considered trying to intervene, but then the crowd started to push its way towards the front and his thoughts immediately switched over to Kimberly. Without even thinking about it he took her by the arm and pulled her in front of him, putting her safely in between himself and the guardrail.

"Old habits die hard I see, huh?" shouted Kimberly, craning her neck to look up at him.

Tommy laughed and started to reply, but was cut off when something, presumably another person, slammed into his back, throwing him forward and pinning himself against Kimberly. It was a compromising position, their bodies pressed against each other, Tommy's lips just inches from her ear. His whole face turned pink as he murmured an apology and tried to push himself free, only to find that the person behind him was much too large to move in his current position.

It seemed like it had been hours, though it had really only been minutes, when the combined effort of police and venue security was finally able to break the fight up. Free at last, a flustered looking Tommy turned around to see several people being hauled away in handcuffs, and then returned his eyes to Kimberly.

"You okay?" he asked, returning her to her spot at his side once the crowd had finally started to calm back down. "That was pretty nuts."

"Yeah, it was," said Kimberly, nodding her agreement. "It just sucks how it only takes a few drunk idiots to cause problems for everybody else."

Tommy nodded and said, "So you're okay then?"

Kimberly smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, a lie if there ever was one.

The truth was that her heart was pounding relentlessly against her chest, and the butterflies in her stomach had returned as well, exponentially stronger than the last time. In those few minutes that she and Tommy had been pressed together she had felt more of him physically than she had ever felt before, and that was all that it had taken to send her senses spiraling out of control; part of her felt the need to put a little bit of distance between them, and part of her just wanted to jump him right then and there, uncaring to the fact that they were currently surrounded by a crowd of close to ten-thousand people.

Not knowing what to do, she suppressed both urges and settled for acting as normal as possible. By the time the stage lights went out some thirty minutes later the sun had long since set, leaving them shrouded in total darkness as the crowd started to buzz in anticipation for the moment they had all been waiting for.

"I think this is it," said Tommy, staring at the black curtain that now covered the stage.

"Yep," said Kimberly, smiling. "You ready?"

"Oh yeah," answered Tommy, nodding.

Moments later the sound of a powerful bass line could be heard, causing the crowd to scream at the top of their lungs as the curtain was pulled back, revealing the band they were all there to see. The first song they played, a track called _Dumpweed_, had chorused lyrics that resonated particularly strongly with Tommy when he heard them, especially considering the events that had taken place just a few short hours earlier.

_She's a dove, she's a fucking nightmare_

_Unpredictable, it was my mistake to stay here_

_On the go and it's way too late to play_

_I need a girl that I can train_

For well over an hour Tommy and Kimberly went absolutely nuts: jumping up and down; screaming as loud as possible; and, yes, even laughing at the plethora of immature humor delivered after nearly every single song, though one particular occasion stood out firmly amongst the rest.

"Hey, Tom," Mark, the band's bassist, had said into the microphone after finishing what was perhaps their biggest hit, _What's My Age Again?_ "Hey, you 'member that time when I came over to your house after school and your dad was all sitting on the couch with peanut butter smeared all over his wiener, talking to your dog like," he continued, his voice going extremely high at this point, "'C'mere, boy, c'mere. Who likes the Skippy? Who likes the Skippy Peanut Butter? Yeah, you're a good boy.'"

"Dammit, Mark, you promised never to talk about that in public again after the last show," Tom, the guitarist, countered, looking embarrassed as the crowd, including Tommy and Kimberly, roared with laughter.

Mark started to reply, but suddenly stopped and turned to a blonde woman in her late twenties, standing on the floor, twenty or so people to Kimberly's right. "Hey lady, can you shut the fuck up please? No, seriously, I'm wearing ear plugs and I can hear your conversation up here; that means it's way too fucking loud."

"Yeah," Tom interjected, pointing at the woman who now looked quite flustered. "Either show us your boobs or we're taking away your speaking privileges indefinitely. Those are the rules when you come to see us."

Tom then proceeded to lead the crowd in a booming chant of _"Boobies_, _boobies!"_ until the woman who, aside from being loud, was also slightly intoxicated, shrugged and lifted her tank top, to many a cheer from those close enough to see. Even Kimberly screamed and clapped when this happened, much to Tommy's surprise and amusement.

Truthfully, he had been somewhat nervous when he and Kimberly had first started spending more and more time together, worried that they had simply both changed too much over the years to ever achieve a comfortable friendship like they had once enjoyed so many years ago; but the more time they spent together he discovered that, despite the many changes that they had both undergone over the years spent apart, very little had actually changed between the two of them. They still got along famously, maybe even better than before; could laugh at themselves when the other person called them on something; and, most of all, still preferred the other's company to that of any of their other friends.

"Man, that was awesome," said Tommy, finally able to breathe, the band having just walked off the stage for the first time after claiming that the show was over, though everyone, of course, already knew better.

"Yeah, but it's not over yet, we've still got the encore," Kimberly replied, smiling up at him, their elbows touching, hands just centimeters away from where they grasped the guardrail.

Grinning, Tommy shook his head. "This has been a great night, Kim. Thank you for everything."

"You're welcome, Tommy," said Kimberly, beaming proudly, thoroughly happy that he was having such a good time. "Just remember this night come next February, okay? I _will_ be expecting similar treatment."

Tommy was unable to do anything more than laugh and nod, for just as he started to make a retort, blink-182 returned to the stage, the crowd going crazy once more. Again, as he and Kimberly jumped up and down, clapping, screaming, and the like, the band's lyrics struck another powerful chord, this one that had absolutely nothing to do with his and Katherine's parting of the ways.

_Because I fell in love with the girl at the rock show_

_She said 'what?' and I told her that I didn't know_

_She's so cool, gonna sneak in through her window_

_Everything's better when she's around…_

Was it really love? That night after the wedding he had said that he had always loved her, but this, the feeling he got when he ceased jumping and turned his smiling face to look at her…it was unlike anything he had ever before experienced.

For Kimberly's part, she pretended not to notice that Tommy was just standing there and smiling at her, and then banished her urge to do the same. Little by little she could feel control over her emotions slipping away, her heart and head divided over what to do. Her heart told her to go for it, to let loose and see what happened, consequences be damned, but her head held her back, reminding her of what had happened the last time she had pursued Tommy's heart.

He had given it to her willingly and she had repaid him by crushing it, simply because the physical distance between them had been too much for her to deal with at the time. Could she honestly trust herself not to do the same thing again? Kimberly did not know, and until she did it would be her head that she chose to listen to.

After finishing _The Rock Show_, blink-182 played one more song, _Dammit_, and then they were gone for good, thanking the crowd a few times before disappearing back stage. The crowd was abuzz for quite some time after that as they all started to make their way back towards the concourse. With everyone moving in the same direction, all hurriedly in attempts to beat the traffic, that sense of protectiveness Tommy felt towards Kimberly came back in full force.

He led the way through the crowd, maintaining a firm grasp on Kimberly's hand as he did so. Kimberly did not resist the gesture, nor did she take it for any more than it was intended to be. Even though she was perfectly capable of defending herself, it made her smile, knowing that Tommy was only trying to look out for her own safety.

"You okay back there?" asked Tommy, turning his head.

"Yeah…I'm…fine," Kimberly managed, feeling herself bouncing off many a hurried person, most of whom were much larger than she. "God, I hate being so short," she grumbled, eliciting a laugh from Tommy that earned him a glare in return. "It's not…funny," she continued, bouncing some more, shaking her head but smiling nonetheless. "Just for a day I wish I could be tall."

"It's not all it's cracked up to be, trust me," Tommy replied, his hold on her hand tightening when he noticed a few kids in their early twenties nearby, all of them drunk and seemingly intent on being as loud and rowdy as possible. "My cousin is, like, six-foot-eight and all I ever hear is how much it sucks, how hard it is to find clothes and all that stuff."

"I don't want to be six-eight, Tommy," she grumbled. "I just don't want to be five-two."

Tommy laughed and said, "Yeah, I understand, but still…there's nothing wrong with being short. If you want me to be honest, your shortness is one of those things I've always found sexy about you."

Kimberly's eyes went wide as she replied, barely audibly, "Really?"

"Yeah," said Tommy, smiling and nodding.

That Tommy still thought she was sexy seemed to perk Kimberly up quite a bit, as the topic of height was promptly dropped, and remained that way for the rest of the night. In fact, in the two hours they spent driving home, one of which consisted of them sitting in her car while waiting to get out of the parking lot, they hardly spoke at all. Casual chatter interrupted the silence from time to time, but for the most part they were content with just being together.

Passing signs that told them how close they were to Reefside, more and more Tommy found himself wishing the night did not have to end. When they finally pulled up to his house just before midnight he was actually seriously considering inviting Kimberly in for a drink—and _only_ a drink—but decided against it in the end, not wanting his invitation to be perceived for more than it really was.

"Well, I guess that's it then," said Tommy, turning his eyes from the house to Kimberly.

"Yeah, I guess so," said Kimberly, a hint of sadness in her voice that did not go unnoticed by Tommy. "Did you have a good time?"

Tommy grinned and nodded. "Yeah, I had a blast. This has easily been one of my best birthdays ever and it's all thanks to you. I don't think you know how much this all meant to me. So," he murmured, catching Kimberly off guard when he leaned across the car and placed a single kiss to her cheek, "thanks again for everything."

Trying not to blush, Kimberly managed a meager "You're welcome," unable to formulate anything more coherent then that. They said their goodbyes, Kimberly watching intently as Tommy climbed out of the car, made the short walk up his driveway, and disappeared into the house with one last wave. The smile she wore as she drove away was bigger and brighter than a month's worth of smiles combined, and it was all thanks to the spiky-haired man who, in less than two months, had somehow reminded her of how wonderful love truly was.


	3. The Cure For a Rainy Day

_**Title: Left at the Altar**_

_**Summary: It was supposed to be Kimberly Hart's perfect day, but as she learned a long time ago, perfect days are rare for Power Rangers, even former Power Rangers on the day they are to be married. Luckily, there's someone out there who's more than willing to help her at her time of greatest need.**_

_**Chapter 3 - "The Cure For a Rainy Day"**_

_**Original Posting Date: March 7, 2009**_

--

It was going to be a bad day, of this Kimberly was already certain. May had left, and June had come and gone, giving way to July and this awful, terrible, God forsaken day. How it could be raining in the middle of July, in Southern California no less, was beyond anything Kimberly could ever hope to comprehend. That the weather gods had chosen today to curse her with a seemingly never ending thunderstorm was absolutely perfect, in a completely sarcastic way of course, just the type of luck that she seemed to have been dealing with more and more recently.

She walked out of her bathroom on this July morning with zero hope of anything good happening today. The day was supposed to have been spent with Tommy, but she had called to cancel their plans upon waking to this, the proverbial cats and dogs who had chosen her one day off this week from her gymnastics studio to rain heaven and hell upon the world. No matter how passionately she loved her Los Angeles Dodgers, she was not about to sit in the middle of a torrential downpour to watch them play.

But the weather was not necessarily the only thing bothering her. The way Tommy had sounded on the phone when she had called just over thirty minutes ago, like he was not even the slightest bit disappointed about the cancellation, was far more irritating than the inclement weather. Over the past few months their relationship had become something that could only be properly defined as weird, and that was taking it entirely too lightly. Weird, especially in the last three weeks, was barely scraping the tip of the iceberg with them.

Now that Tommy was on summer break from school they were spending more time together than ever before. They did everything couples were supposed to do, except the _things_ couples were supposed to do. Neither had even given thought to returning to the dating scene following their respective breakups, and had taken comfort with each other in the shared perception that they were both doomed to fail at love. Best friends was not enough to describe what they had, but a word in the dictionary for them there was not.

Flirtatious banter was commonplace now. For someone who did not know the pair, to see them walking down the street together they would have seemed like any other couple; Tommy with his arm around her shoulder, Kimberly's arm around his waist. Falling asleep on the couch on a Friday night while wrapped warmly in a spooning position had become standard practice as well. They were so dangerously close to being something so much more than this, but it was a fact that neither dared mention to the other.

Pretending that they only wanted to be friends was just as standard as spooning now. Kimberly had spent hour after hour on the phone with both Aisha and Trini, trying to deduce just what it was that was happening between she and Tommy, but patient as they were, the two former Yellow Rangers had recently reached the end of the rope when it came to telling Kimberly that they just could not help her with this one, that she had to figure out for herself what was going on with her Tommy.

More than anything though, she just wished that things actually made some sense for once. Not since Tommy had come back into her life had she been able to lead anything close to a simple life. Truth be told, things always seemed to be more complicated whenever Tommy was a staple in her life. Things were just as complicated and confusing now as they had been when they were teenaged Rangers, aware of their feelings but unsure how to react to them. Alas, once again, everyone but Tommy and Kimberly seemed to know that there was still something there between them.

There was simply too much history between them for there not to be confusion; or at least that was how Kimberly felt. She had no idea what kind of thoughts were going through Tommy's head, and that, more than the horrible weather and his earlier coolness combined, was the primary cause for her current state of irritation. If she could just have a brief glimpse into his mind, just enough to get a tiny inkling of what he was feeling, everything would have been so much easier. Unfortunately, mind reading was not one of the perks that came with having served as one of Earth's only defenders for nearly three years.

"There aren't any perks at all," Kimberly grumbled, as she shuffled around the house in pajama bottoms and a tank top, her hair still wet from the shower. If she had to be stuck in the house all day, she was at least going to be comfortable doing it.

The pot of coffee she had started before getting in the shower was now done, the scent of liquid gold filling her nostrils as she made her way to the kitchen, padding across the living room carpet in fuzzy pink slippers. She retrieved a mug from one of the cabinets, started to pour herself a cup, and let out a startled yelp when the doorbell rang. Someone calling on a day like today was the very last thing that she had been expecting.

"Damn salesmen don't know when to take a damn day off," she muttered, turning for the door, shaking her head in disbelief. "I don't need my carpet cleaned, I'm happy with my cable company, and I don't want to buy any choc—" Her voice dropped off upon opening the door and seeing who was there. "Oh, it's you," she continued meekly, smiling at a slightly wet Tommy, his head covered by a black beanie, the matching hooded sweatshirt he wore spattered with even darker patches from the rain. Then she realized that her hair was soaked, that she had no makeup on, and was wearing sleeping attire, which caused her to immediately freeze up.

"Yeah, it's me," Tommy panted, having just ran from the street, all the way up Kimberly's elongated driveway, with his arms full of bags. "So do you just plan on standing there and letting me freeze my ass off outside, or are you actually going to act like a normal human being and invite me in?"

Blinking rapidly, Kimberly shook her head and stepped back, trying to find her voice as Tommy nodded politely and entered the house. "I, uh, I wasn't expecting you to show up unannounced like this," she finally managed, watching Tommy dump his cargo on her couch like it was his own. It made her smile, realizing she would have done the same thing at Tommy's house if their roles had been reversed. They really were that comfortable with one another.

"I couldn't help but notice," said Tommy, laughing. Kimberly sneered and stuck her tongue out at him as he continued, "Did you really think I was going to let you get out of spending the day with me that easily? There isn't another guy here is there? 'Cause I'll kick his ass if I have to."

Laughing, with another shake of her head Kimberly rolled her eyes and said, "No, there's no other guy here. In fact, last time I checked there hasn't been a guy here in months, unless you count Jason."

Folding his arms across his chest, Tommy raised his eyebrows and asked, "What exactly does that make me then?"

"I don't know, you tell me," said Kimberly, grinning as she shrugged in faux helplessness. "I've seen what Jason's packing. It's still up in the air with you, though."

"Oh, is that so?" Tommy questioned, Kimberly nodding. "Well then I guess I'll just have to prove it to you, won't I?"

Something in between a squeal and a laugh escaped Kimberly's lips when Tommy suddenly shoved his hand down the front of his sweat pants, determined to show her just what kind of man he was. One hand quickly went up to cover her mouth, while the other was being used to waive him off.

"No…Tommy…don't," she managed, struggling with her laughter. "Really…you…don't have to do that. Seriously…it's fine." With no intention of actually exposing himself, Tommy let out an internal sigh of relief that his manhood had not been challenged and he had not been forced to back down, and slowly removed his hand from his pants as Kimberly added, "Oh, thank God. For a second there I thought I was going to need to get a map and my magnifying glass."

"Oh, that's real funny coming from the chairwoman of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee," said Tommy, clapping his hands in mock approval. "Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it for Ms. Bee Sting Boobies herself, Kim Hart! Kim, take a bow!"

"I'll do no such thing," said Kimberly firmly, pointing a stern finger at Tommy. "I'll have you know," she added, holding her breasts, "that I ditched my training bra last week. I finally get to wear big girl ones now."

Tommy just laughed, shaking his head as he started to go about unpacking the four bags that he had brought over with him.

"So what did you bring me?" Kimberly continued, skipping towards Tommy in the living room.

"Well, at first I thought we could just watch the game here, but then I realized it was probably just going to get rained out anyway, so I grabbed some board games from home and stopped at the video store to rent us some movies; figured we could just spend the day inside," said Tommy, holding up a handful of DVD's. "Oh, and I made a pit stop at Mickey D's to pick us up an extremely unhealthy breakfast."

"Sausage McGriddles with cheese?" asked Kimberly, the hope evident in her voice.

"And hash browns," said Tommy, offering her a white paper bag.

Kimberly took the bag without a word, pulled out one of the wrapped breakfast sandwiches, removed the paper, and devoured half the sandwich in two big bites. "Mah heewo…fanks," she sputtered, her hand flying to her mouth to prevent the expulsion of chewed breakfast.

"What was that?" said Tommy, chuckling. "I don't think I've ever heard that language before."

Rolling her eyes, Kimberly stamped her foot impatiently as she attempted to chew her food into something she could actually swallow. "I said," she started after a few seconds, gulping down the last bit, "My hero…thanks. I've been so busy this week at work that I haven't even had time to grocery shop."

"I know," Tommy replied, grinning. "You told me on the phone last night, remember, when you were looking around in the freezer for something to cook and couldn't find anything but a sixth month-old TV dinner and empty ice cube trays?"

"Oh yeah…I'm surprised you actually remembered I said that," Kimberly murmured, her surprise very much genuine. "I guess I must finally be starting to rub off on you; and if you ask me, it's about damn time, too."

"God, I hope not, the last thing I need is to become a vertically challenged, hyperactive, shopping addict," Tommy countered, he and Kimberly sharing a laugh as he continued, "So what'd you end up having last night, anyway?"

"A pickle, two slices of wheat bread, and a box of Rice-o-Roni," said Kimberly, wincing at the mere thought of last night's dinner. That she had had any coffee left this morning had been a minor miracle in itself, one she had graciously thanked the heavens above for.

Tommy narrowed his eyes. "You're joking, right?" he questioned, Kimberly shaking her head. "Alright, that does it," he continued firmly, his voice leaving no room for argument, very much like the one he had used so many times on the battlefield, "we're going grocery shopping later this afternoon and that's all there is to it. There's no way I'm going to let you live off of pickles and boxed rice."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold the freaking phone for just one second," said Kimberly, waving her arms wildly in front of her face. "Did I just hear that right? Did Tommy Oliver _really_ just say that _he_ is going to take _me_ shopping?"

"It's the grocery store, Kim, not the mall," said Tommy dryly, taking a bite from his sausage, egg, and cheese McMuffin.

"Doesn't matter," said Kimberly firmly. "This one is going down in the history books. You have never, and I mean _never_, offered to take me shopping before."

Hunched over the couch as he searched through the McDonald's bag for a hash brown, Tommy instantly stood up straight and matter-of-factly stated, "Like I just said, it's the grocery store, not the mall. I'm making sure you're fed, not indulging you while you run around Macy's for three hours like a freaking maniac."

Kimberly shook her head dismissively. "Like _I _just said, it doesn't matter. Shopping is shopping," she replied. "Besides, this is just the first tumble down a very slippery slope. One minute you're taking me to get groceries, and then the next minute you're standing outside a department store dressing room, holding outfits that I can't afford, but have to try on just to prove to myself that I can still pull them off."

"The sex afterwards better be mind-blowing if I'm putting up with all of that crap," said Tommy, deadpanned. This was the perfect example of the type of humor that had become increasingly popular in their day-to-day conversations, saying things to each other that they never would have even thought to say back in high school.

"Oh, you wish you could get this," Kimberly retorted, doing a little twirl and striking what was supposed to be a glamorous pose. "Face it, Tommy, I'm just out of your league."

Tommy shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Yeah, you are, but that's because I'm playing in the majors and you're still putting around in the minor leagues, waiting to get that call up to play with the big boys. It's okay though, Kim, one of these days you'll get your turn, I promise."

Mid-chew, Kimberly's only viable line of defense was to open her mouth and reveal the contents inside. Tommy doubled over, as though to vomit, as Kimberly swallowed and told him, "That's what you get for talking shit, bitch. If you can't hack it with the big girls, get your ass back on the bench."

They went on like this for quite some time, bantering back and forth until both had run out of clever things to say. Some time later saw them sharing the living room couch; Tommy sat in the center with his arms sprawled out behind him and Kimberly laid out next to him, her legs and feet resting comfortably on top of his thighs. SportsCenter played on her big screen plasma television, keeping Tommy distracted in between Kimberly reading aloud to him from one of Cosmopolitan magazine's many dating surveys.

"You usually meet guys at: A)—"

"The gay bar," said Tommy, shooting her a wink.

Kimberly rolled her eyes, immediately regretting that she had ever told Tommy about the boy she had dumped him for, a fellow Pan Global gymnast who had come out to her six months into their relationship. "Stop being an asshole and let me finish," she grumbled, Tommy giving her an apologetic look. "You usually meet guys at: A) Nightclubs; B)—"

"Assholes Anonymous," Tommy finished once again. That one was a dig at Jeff.

"God, you make a terrible girlfriend," Kimberly muttered, kicking the side of Tommy's leg.

"That's because I'm not a girl, Kim," said Tommy, laughing as he shook his head. "What do I care where you usually meet guys? Wherever we're meeting people, we both need to look elsewhere, 'cause nightclubs and the mall just aren't cutting it anymore."

Kimberly laughed and nodded her agreement. "Tell me about it," she replied. "I think I've reached the point of no return."

"You're not talking about—" Tommy started.

"—the Internet," Kimberly supplied. "I saw some commercial where they guarantee you'll find true love in 30 days, or some bullshit like that. I figure I can't have any worse luck than I already do, right?"

Still laughing, Tommy looked at Kimberly and shook his head once more, asking, "We're hopeless, aren't we? I mean, we are really and truly hopeless. We save the world more times than I can even think about counting, and yet can't seem to meet people of the opposite sex who actually understand us."

"Thanks for really driving the point home there, oh great former leader of ours."

"You're welcome," said Tommy, grinning cheekily, sounding almost oblivious to her sarcasm.

Kimberly rolled her eyes again and then returned them to her magazine, forced to read it in silence since Tommy was clearly going to be of no help to her. Within seconds, however, she found herself peering over the edge of the magazine, just enough to get a discreet look at Tommy's face. Did he realize how he sounded? Did he honestly not realize, while unable to admit it out loud, that they were perfect for each other? Oh hell, Kimberly thought to herself, perfect did not even start to do them justice.

But there was still her head, that nagging little voice in the back of her mind telling her that Tommy deserved better than her, someone he could actually trust with his heart. Immature though it may have sounded, Kimberly honestly did not think that she could ever again be trusted in that situation, nor did she think that Tommy would ever be able to fully trust her again either, not after the severe levels of pain that she had already caused him to experience.

"So am I just going to sit here and watch ESPN all day? 'Cause I could have done that at home and saved myself half a tank of gas," said Tommy, after a near thirty minute stretch of time where neither had said a word.

Kimberly looked up from her magazine and asked, "What do you want to do, Tommy?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, looking to the pile of board games on the floor. "Wanna play one of those?"

"Don't you think we're a little too old for _Sorry!_ and _Monopoly_?"

Clutching his heart, Tommy shook his head. "No one is ever too old for _Monopoly_. Come on, let's play; it'll be fun, I promise."

Rolling her eyes, Kimberly sighed, closed the magazine, and pushed herself into a sitting position next to Tommy. "You do remember what happened the last time we played this game, right?" she asked, as Tommy went about setting everything up on the coffee table.

"Yeah, I do," said Tommy, nodding, proceeding to set up the game without waiting for Kimberly's agreement to play. "And I hope you've matured a bit since then, too. I seem to remember having to duck several houses and hotels before you ran out of plastic and started throwing the metal pieces at me."

"You were cheating," Kimberly replied adamantly. "Sixteen years old and cheating at _Monopoly_; ridiculous I tell you, ridiculous!"

"Oh that's right, I was _cheating_," said Tommy, grinning as he remembered Kimberly's massively dramatic blow up after landing on his hotel-occupied Boardwalk for the third time in six turns, all thanks to Community Chest, a few lucky rolls, and a ride on the Short Line. "You'll have to forgive me, my memory's not quite what it used to be."

Kimberly shuddered and murmured, "Well that's a scary thought for you."

Tommy laughed as he handed Kimberly one of the dice. "Highest roll goes first." Nodding, Kimberly shook the die a few times, blew on it for luck, and let it go. "Nice," he continued, upon seeing her die land on one.

"Fuck off," Kimberly grumbled, refusing to look at Tommy's five.

His first roll of the game was snake-eyes, taking him to Community Chest and then to the Short Line Railroad, followed by an immediate purchase of Park Place after his subsequent roll of double-ones. "And so it begins," he laughed, throwing a five, moving his cannon, and taking two-hundred dollars for passing GO.

Civilized play did not last very long, mostly due to the fact that Kimberly was out of money and had mortgaged off most of her properties after just over forty-five minutes of playing. When she landed on Reading Railroad, one of four railroads in the game, all of which Tommy currently owned, he knew that things were about to get interesting to say the very least.

"I'm done, I fucking hate this game!" said Kimberly, rising to her feet, her face beet red. "I'm sitting on Baltic with crap," she continued, pointing from the lone property she had yet to mortgage, then to Tommy, "and you've got all the stupid little hotels and pink fifties. Where'd you get all the pink fifties, huh, cheater? Kind of funny you're the banker and have all the money, don't you think?"

"Do you want to be the banker?" Tommy murmured, trying desperately not to laugh.

"No, I don't want to be the fucking banker! I want to have never played this game in the first place! I swear to God, _Monopoly _was designed to tear families apart. I think my parents must have been fans of it."

"It's really not that bad, Kim. I mean, it's just a game—" Tommy tried to reason, instantly falling silent when Kimberly's head snapped to look at him with a look so terrifying that would have made a serial killer whimper.

But that look quickly disappeared as Kimberly's head reminded her that Tommy was not the cause of her anger. "I know," she sighed, shaking head. "It's just…you know how much I hate to lose at things, especially to you. And I'm sorry for snapping at you, but can we just do something else, please?"

Smiling, Tommy nodded and patted the now empty seat beside him. "Come on," he said softly. As Kimberly started towards him once more he continued, "What would you like to do, Kim?"

Kimberly did not immediately answer, instead turning her head to the sliding glass door that led to her backyard. "It looks like the rain's slowing down a bit," she observed, turning to Tommy. "You wanna do that grocery shopping you mentioned before the sky decides to _really_ start crapping on us again?"

Tommy laughed. "Uh, yeah, sure, why not?" he replied with a shrug. "Does fifteen minutes sound good?"

Furrowing her brow, Kimberly asked, "Why fifteen minutes?"

Raising a quizzical eyebrow, Tommy said, "So you can change. Unless, of course, you want to go to the grocery store in Dora the Explorer pajamas and fuzzy pink slippers, in which case we can leave right now."

Kimberly felt like smacking herself in the forehead at that point; hard, too. She had fallen into such a comfortable lull with Tommy in the house that she had completely forgotten about her somewhat disheveled bedside appearance, something that she never would have been able to have done with Jeff, or any of her other ex-boyfriends for that matter.

"What, would you be embarrassed if I went out like this or something?" Kimberly questioned, trying to flip things back on Tommy.

"Nope," said Tommy, shaking his head. "I'm cool with it if you are."

"Really?" said Kimberly, staring at Tommy, her eyes narrowed in disbelief.

Tommy smiled and nodded. "Yeah," he replied, shrugging nonchalantly. "If you going to the grocery store in pajamas and fuzzy slippers is the worst thing that happens to me today, then I'd say I've had a pretty damn good day."

Kimberly could hardly believe what she was hearing. With Jeff, he would have steadfastly refused to go anywhere in public with her until she had made herself more "presentable" first, the same with her last three ex's before him. Again, this was one of those many times in recent memory where Tommy seemed to prove to her once more that he was a man truly in a league of his own. The things that normally would have bothered most guys just did not seem to have the same effect on Tommy.

"So, uh, fifteen minutes then?" said Kimberly, unsure of what else to say. It made her smile to know that there was at least one good man still left in the world; or at least a man with whom she did not already have a firm brother-sister relationship, despite her written assessment of their relationship from some years back.

"Sure," said Tommy, nodding, watching Kimberly walk off towards her bedroom with a wide smile on his face.

--

There was something slightly domesticated about the pair as they walked through a nearby supermarket some forty-five minutes later, almost all to themselves due to it being a weekday afternoon. Tommy was hunched over the half full shopping cart he was currently pushing, Kimberly at his side with a plastic basket on her arm. Stealing glances at one another, smiling when they thought the other wasn't looking; a casual observer could have easily perceived them to be more than they really were.

Up and down each aisle they went, loading up their respective receptacles with all of the essential items, and quite a few extras as well. They were currently in the snack aisle with twenty or so feet between them, Tommy trying to find the cookies that Kimberly wanted while she looked for something else, when she suddenly turned to him and called out, "Tommy, come here! You have to see this!

"Hold on," said Tommy, his eyes scanning the shelves in frustration. He just could not seem to find the cookies Kimberly wanted. "What did you say you wanted again? Double stuffed Oreos, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Kimberly replied. "Don't tell me they're out of them. I need my Oreos, dammit."

Grinning, Tommy looked to Kimberly and shrugged. "I'll keep looking," he said, returning to the shelves. "I'll be over there in a minute."

After a few more seconds a glimmer appeared in Tommy's eyes. There, on the uppermost shelf, hidden between a stack of the reduced fat variety, were the cookies Kimberly had requested, seemingly the last box in the entire store. Tommy felt like a Roman gladiator, victorious amongst thousands upon thousands of screaming patrons in the Colosseum as he reached up to retrieve the cookies, carrying them over to where Kimberly stood, looking oh so proud of himself.

"Found 'em," he told her, dropping the package into her hand basket.

Kimberly smiled, said, "I knew you were good for something," pulled a box from the shelf, and thrust it towards Tommy. "Can you believe this crap?" she continued, shaking her head in disbelief. "I mean, aren't there, like, copyright laws and stuff out there that prevent these people from using our images like this?"

Tommy eyed the box she had given him and laughed heartily at what he saw. They were Power Ranger fruit snacks, designed in the gummy likeness of the five original helmets, as well as the one Tommy had worn as the White Ranger. "Oh, that is too much. We have to get these," he told her, tossing them into his cart.

"I'm glad you're amused," said Kimberly, her hands on her hips, "but you didn't answer my question. It has to be illegal, doing something like that," she added, pointing at the box.

"I'm sure it is on some level, but I'm a teacher, not a lawyer," Tommy replied, shrugging uncertainly. "Besides, what could we do about it even if it is illegal? It's not like we can just go to some lawyer and say 'Hey, we used to be the Power Rangers, help us sue the fruit snack company for likeness infringement.' I severely doubt that these things sell well enough to be worth revealing our identities over. Now, if they were putting our faces on cans of Coca-Cola then that would be an entirely different story. Could you imagine the residuals on something like that? We'd never have to work another day in our lives."

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "I don't care about money, Tommy," she felt the need to tell him, even though she knew that he had only been joking. "I just…none of us did what we did to be plastered on t-shirts and lunch pails and fruit snack boxes. I guess it just bothers me to know that there is some random company out there using us and what we did for no other reason than to make money."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Here," said Tommy, replacing the Power Rangers snacks with a different variety. "We'll just get Superman instead, okay? A fictional, legally licensed character."

Kimberly laughed and nodded as they continued along, content to forget about her disdain for greedy fruit snack companies, at least for the time being. "That reminds me of a joke Trini told me the other night. Wanna hear it?"

"Oh, you tell jokes now, too?" said Tommy, smiling. "This should be rich."

"Are you saying I'm not funny? Because I'll have you know I am very, _very_ funny."

"So funny I forgot to laugh," Tommy replied, nudging her playfully with his elbow. Kimberly glared at him, resulting in an apologetic smile from Tommy as he murmured, "Sorry, you can tell your joke now."

"Thank you," said Kimberly, firmly.

Tommy gave her his full attention as she tried to recount the joke she had heard from Trini but seemed to have forgotten parts of. He was pretty sure she had put the punch line in the wrong place, something about Superman killing someone by jumping out of a window and being an asshole. The joke, if it could even be called that, was not the slightest bit funny, at least not Kimberly's recollection of it, but Tommy still laughed when she had finished, careful not to sound forced as he did so. She seemed so proud of herself that he knew he had done the right thing by pretending that the joke had been funny.

After a few more minutes of walking around they had gathered everything on the list that Kimberly had made before leaving her house and then some. Ten minutes later the groceries were paid for and bagged, she and Tommy walking as close together as was possible without actually touching as they made their way out of the store. The rain had died down significantly in the hour or so they had spent inside, and was now barely even a drizzle, hardly the extreme downpour that it had been earlier.

Kimberly had just popped the trunk on her car, she and Tommy going about loading the groceries inside when she caught something in the corner of her eye that made her freeze on the spot, a sudden tightness forming in her throat. Tommy did not immediately notice and continued to pack the bags away, but when he realized she was not moving and saw the look on her face it became instantly clear that his only concern was for her.

"Kim," he said softly, but she did not respond. "Kim, are you okay?" he tried, a bit firmer.

Blinking rapidly, Kimberly turned to look at Tommy. "It's him," she said hoarsely, staring in disbelief at the man and woman walking hand-in-hand towards them. Tommy followed her gaze and quickly felt the urge to beat the living daylights out of Jeff Reynolds—this time in front of his new girlfriend—return in full force, perhaps even more powerfully than it had been in the moments right before and right after Jeff had left Kimberly standing alone at the altar.

But before Tommy could do anything, or even ask Kimberly if she _wanted_ him to do anything, he found that his lips had become rather occupied and that he was now being pressed against the side of Kimberly's car. Thousands of thoughts flooded his mind as he realized what was happening, that Kimberly was suddenly kissing him for no apparent reason, but one singular thought shone the brightest amongst the rest. It was a distinct sense of pleasure the likes of which he had not experienced in quite some time; since winter break during their junior year of high school, to be exact.

Her lips burned hot against his, the sensation so wonderful that Tommy did the only thing he could think to do. His arms found their way around her slender form as he started to return the kiss with more passion than he had ever thought possible, reveling in the moment, blissfully oblivious to why she had chosen this, of all times, to make her move on him.

Then Kimberly slowly pulled away and everything instantly started to become much more clear to him. He saw Jeff staring at them and sneering, then saw him quickly turn his head when Kimberly looked in his direction. She smiled at her victory over her ex-fiancée as she returned her focus to Tommy, patting him softly on the chest.

"Thanks," she murmured, drifting back to her basket of groceries still resting at the trunk of her car. "You played that perfectly," she continued, a bag in each hand. "For a while there I thought you actually meant it."

"Yeah, well, I figured we needed to make it look good to really get under Jeff's skin," Tommy lied, not missing a beat as he joined her at the back of the car, unable to tell her that he _had_ meant it when she had so obviously not.

The burning sensation on his lips did not subside as they drove home, nor did it disappear as they carried her groceries into the house and unloaded them. Her taste remained as they prepared lunch together in the kitchen, and remained long after they had cleaned up their mess once they had finished eating. The only thing Tommy could think about was the kiss, and how desperately he wanted to do it again. Her lips had awoken something in Tommy, something he could not explain, but that was on the verge of consuming him entirely.

"You, uh, you got some mustard on your shirt," said Tommy, trying to sound casual as he loaded a few dishes into the dishwasher, saying anything he could think of to keep his mind away from what he wanted so very badly.

"Oh, thanks," Kimberly murmured, looking down at the barely visible yellow smudge on her otherwise perfectly white sweatshirt. "I'll go change and then we can watch one of those movies you brought over."

She did not wait for him to reply, instead turning on her heels and making a beeline towards her room before he could say anything at all. The truth was that she too had felt something during their kiss, something she did not fully understand, and needed to get away to make sense of things, if only for a few minutes. Immature as her reasons for kissing Tommy might have been, she had kissed him nonetheless, and in doing so had relit a fire inside herself that had been otherwise dormant for a very long time.

Inside her room she quickly pulled off the minutely stained sweatshirt, but did not immediately seek its replacement. Instead she stood with her back to the door in a pink tank top, clutching the sweatshirt against her chest, wondering how she could have done something so stupid as to kiss Tommy. She should have known that this would happen, that kissing him once would only make her want to kiss him again, just like it had done back in high school. She should have been stronger, should have acted like a grown woman instead of a jealous teenager trying to get back at an ex-boyfriend, but she had made her bed and would now have to lie in it.

Time all but slipped away from Kimberly entirely after she had rejoined Tommy in the living room, trying to act as normal as possible in a situation that made her attempts at normalcy seem rather futile. Normal, no matter how hard she tried, had ceased to exist the second she had chosen to attach her lips to Tommy's for the first time in nearly a decade.

Making it through two full movies with him was practically torture; they sat so close to each other on the couch, but it was not nearly enough, at least not for Kimberly. She found herself longing to be tucked in comfortably against his side, anything just to feel his touch as she had in the grocery store parking lot earlier that afternoon, completely unaware that she was not the only one in the room whose thoughts had remained steadfastly focused on the kiss.

They both tried to make sense of what had happened in their heads, but nothing that either of them could come up with explained what they had felt in those brief moments: the sudden rush, almost like electricity surging through them; the passion, undeniable even if the kiss had just been for show; and perhaps most importantly of all, the way each of them wanted so much more than that which they had already been given.

But they were just friends, Kimberly reminded herself, friends who had just so happened to have shared a mind blowing kiss in the middle of a rainy parking lot. Yeah, because people who were just friends did things like that with each other _all _the time.

As the credits of _Pretty_ _Woman_—Kimberly's all-time favorite movie—began to roll, she suddenly pushed herself onto her feet and started towards the kitchen, having been unable to enjoy the movie even in the slightest. She simply could not stand it anymore, being so close to Tommy yet so far away; it was making her question her very sanity.

How could it have come to this, when she had tried so damn hard to keep her heart out of their rekindled friendship? She opened her refrigerator and stuck her head inside, looking around in an attempt to distract herself, but that attempt proved useless as well. Everything in the ice box made her think of Tommy: milk and sour cream were white, and Tommy had been the White Ranger; wheat bread and barbecue sauce were brown, as were his hair and eyes; ground beef resting right next to Swiss cheese, pink and white, side by side once more.

"Oh God," she gasped, tears touching her eyes as her hand flew to her mouth. Was this actually happening to her? Had she really gone and fallen for him all over again, only this time even harder than before?

Biting back her tears, Kimberly forced herself to regain her composure, swallowing hard as she removed her head from inside the refrigerator and pushed the door closed. Taking a deep breath, she turned for the living room and froze before managing a single step. Tommy was standing just feet away, blocking her path, his arms folded across his chest as though daring her to try and get passed him.

"W-what's up?" said Kimberly timidly, unable to meet his eyes for more than a few seconds at a time.

"You tell me," Tommy replied firmly, pulling his leader voice for the second time today.

"What are you talking about?" Kimberly questioned innocently.

Tommy narrowed his eyes at her, letting Kimberly know that feigning ignorance was not going to be a viable defense with him this time. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, Kim," he countered, slowly starting to close what little distance remained between them. "The kiss," he continued, approaching Kimberly like a lion to its prey, causing her to unconsciously backpedal towards the wall. "I know you felt it, because I felt it too. It wasn't just a throwaway kiss, some game to piss Jeff off. There was more to it than that."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Tommy," Kimberly lied, the meekness in her voice betraying her as her back ran into the wall, leaving her nowhere else to run. "I just wanted to get back at Jeff, that's all there is to it."

"I don't believe you," said Tommy, now standing right in front of Kimberly as he looked down at the side of her turned head, their faces just inches apart. "You can't even look at me because you know it's true. Whether you want to admit it or not, something happened earlier, something more than a kiss between two friends. There was real passion there, Kim, like we'd finally been given the excuse to do what we've both wanted to do for a really long time now."

"I think you're a little over-confident in your kissing skills," Kimberly replied, finally deciding to push back. She did not enjoy being backed into a corner, physically or literally; Tommy had just done both and taking something like that rolling over was not something that Kimberly was known for doing.

"This isn't a joke, Kim, I'm trying to be real here."

"So am I."

Tommy seemed to ponder that for a few moments, a curious expression on his face as he continued to stare at her. Then, as if it all made sense to him, he nodded once and started to back away. "Fine, have it your way," he muttered, turning around. "I'll see you later, Kim."

Absolute horror flooded her very being as she watched Tommy walk away, her heart slowly breaking with each step he took that carried him further and further from her. She tried to call out to him, but discovered that her voice could no longer be found. Then she tried to go after him instead, only to realize that she was all but paralyzed, rooted to the hardwood floor that she stood upon.

Tears filled her eyes as he disappeared from sight completely, sounds becoming her only given clue as to where he was in the house: the nearby clatter as he gathered his things from the living room; the progressively distant pitter-patter of feet, telling her how close he was to leaving; the whoosh and thud of the door opening and closing, forcing her to recognize how close she had become to losing him for a second time.

He had given her the perfect opportunity to come clean and she had been too stubborn to take it. If she allowed him to leave now, after everything they had been through recently, somehow she just knew that it would be for good, the mere thought of which she simply could not bear to see become a reality.

"No!" said Kimberly, forcing herself to move. She would not lose Tommy, not again.

Suddenly she was running, her socked feet carrying her across the house faster than she had ever run before. The door was thrown open to reveal that the rain had returned to full strength, but she paid it no mind, squinting her eyes as she ran across her soaked lawn to where Tommy now stood, on the verge of getting into his Jeep. She stopped short, however, upon reaching the sidewalk and when realizing that Tommy was just standing there at the driver's side door, staring at her with his hands stuffed deeply into the stomach pocket of his sweatshirt.

"You weren't going to leave, were you?" Kimberly shouted over the pounding rain, more a statement than a question.

Tommy smiled. "Would you have let me?"

"I'm standing here, aren't I?" Kimberly replied, hands on her hips.

"That's not an answer."

Their misty eyes locked through the watery pellets raining down on them, and in a matter of moments their clothes were soaked through completely. The next thing Tommy knew Kimberly was speed walking right towards him; he removed his hands from his pockets and caught her mid-leap, one hand supporting her from underneath while the other found its way into her auburn locks. Kimberly locked her legs around his waist, took his face between her hands, and then they were kissing, kissing as they had never kissed before.

No thunderstorm in the world could have extinguished the fire that burned between them as their lips attacked each other hungrily, their kiss lasting for what seemed like hours, only ending when the need to breathe became overwhelming. Even when the kiss had broken, Kimberly's lips remained within inches of Tommy's, her eyes closed and her forehead pressed against his.

"Feel anything there?" said Tommy, his voice breathless.

"Shh," Kimberly whispered, silencing him with a fleeting kiss. "Don't," she continued, wrapping her arms tightly around Tommy's neck when he started to lower her back to the ground. "Just a little bit longer."

Tommy just smiled, content to remain like this as long as Kimberly wanted to. The rain was unimportant; there would be plenty of time to warm back up later. Right now it was simply two people who cared about nothing else in the world except each other, not even Kimberly's nosy neighbor across the street, an elderly widow with far too many cats, watching them disdainfully from her front window.

"You're an asshole for making me think you were going to leave, you know that?" said Kimberly, kissing his wet lips over and over.

"If you had taken much longer I _was_ going to leave," Tommy replied, running his fingers through her hair as they shared a quiet laugh. "Leave it to Kim to take a dry, perfectly manageable situation and turn it into something overly dramatic."

"Leave it to Tommy to ruin an equally romantic moment by talking too much," countered Kimberly.

"Is that my cue to kiss you again?"

Biting her bottom lip, Kimberly smiled as she looked down at Tommy. "Yeah," she murmured, nodding, "it is."

Tommy was more than happy to oblige, but this time as he did so he started moving them back towards her house. "Can I just say one more thing?" he asked, after breaking the kiss midway up the driveway.

"Go for it, chatterbox," said Kimberly, smiling as she kissed him once more. If kissing Tommy was a drug, then she was more than happy to become a junkie for it.

"You look so fucking sexy wet," said Tommy, grinning up at a now laughing Kimberly.

The trademark bottom lip bite had returned again, coupled with a smile as she gazed longingly into his eyes. She had never quite been able to figure out what it was about him that made her feel this way: so very warm inside; like she and Tommy were the only two people in the world who mattered; that nothing else was important so long as they had each other. Still, it seemed to make about as much sense to her now as it had when they had been teenagers.

"You're something else, you know that?" Kimberly murmured, rubbing the tip of her nose against his. "I don't think I've ever chased after a guy who walked out on me before, and definitely never in the middle of a thunderstorm."

Tommy laughed as he fumbled with the door handle behind Kimberly's butt. "Well I've never had a girl chase after me in the middle of a thunderstorm, so it's firsts for both of us."

"How about another first for us?" whispered Kimberly, gently grazing her lips against Tommy's as he carried her into the house.

The meaning behind her question was not lost on Tommy, but his answer was not one that he was willing to rush into giving. He was forced to set her down at this point, examining her features carefully as he said in a low voice, "There's no going back if we do. A kiss is one thing, Kim, but—"

"Then it's a good thing that I have no desire to go back, isn't it?" Kimberly replied, grabbing him by his sweatshirt, pulling him down to her level, and kissing him hard on the mouth once more. "I know you're just trying to look out for me, but I've never wanted or been more sure about anything in my life, Tommy."

"I've waited half my life to hear you say that," said Tommy, trying to wrap his mind around the fact that this was actually about to happen, the culmination of his teenaged fantasies, and many of his adult fantasies as well.

"Well the wait's over," said Kimberly, her fingertips tugging at the hem of his sweatshirt. "Come on, let's get out of these wet clothes and then we can go take a shower."

Tommy just nodded, allowing his body to drift into auto-pilot mode as Kimberly started to remove his clothes. He felt his body move to help Kimberly, but was far from in control of these actions. "Just remember it was cold outside," he managed to remind her, upon realizing that her fingertips had found their way to the waistband of his sweats.

"Don't worry," she murmured, winking slyly. "If what happened at the concert was any indication of what you're working with, we won't have any problems."

Tommy smiled, suddenly remembering how he had felt after being pressed up against Kimberly from behind, their bodies as close together was humanly possible while still remaining clothed. It was enough to return control of his senses back to him; as Kimberly started on his boxers, Tommy seized her wrists and lifted her arms up, draping them around his neck as he kissed her once more.

The next few hours to follow were something of a blur. Barely able to move, Tommy looked up at the ceiling from where he lay in Kimberly's bed and smiled brightly, listening to the sound of Kimberly's heavy breathing next to him. He could remember vividly their first time in the shower and the way she had clawed at his back, leaving the red scratch marks that he now wore with the greatest of pride. Somehow, someway, they had gone through several position and location changes in a relatively short amount of time, culminating with them in Kimberly's bed, doing something they had not done all day; make love.

The shower; the bathroom counter; the kitchen counter; the living room couch; the living room floor; the bedroom floor; all of it had been primal, a desperate search to find that which had eluded them for so very long, but everything had changed upon reaching the bed. Why, he did not know, but there was just something about it that had elicited an immediate change in tone. In bed he had been slow, tender, his full attention captured by the notion that if this was to never happen again then he wanted something more to remember it by than just the simple carnal pleasure of sex. Any two people could have sex, but to make love was special, just as Kimberly had always been to him; and in those few special moments he had also realized something else.

So long as she wanted him around, Tommy was going nowhere.


	4. A Terrible Mistake

_**Title: Left at the Altar**_

_**Chapter 4 - A Terrible Mistake**_

_**Original Posting Date: March 15, 2009**_

--

Hunched over one of the his-and-her sinks in his bathroom, with only a white towel around his waist and shaving cream covering half his face, Tommy looked to his left where Kimberly stood in front of the other sink and smiled brightly at her. Wrapped in a matching towel, Kimberly returned the gesture and then returned to applying her makeup, completely aware that Tommy was still staring at her, apparently with no intentions of shaving the other side of his face.

It was absolutely crazy to him to think that a scenario as boring and basic as watching her put on makeup could be just as intimate as well. He had watched Katherine get ready hundreds of times over the years, but he had never paid so close of attention to the intricacies of her routine as he did with Kimberly. They had only been together for two months now and he had already memorized her whole routine; even the way she crinkled and wiggled her nose ever so cutely after powdering it made him smile like a fool.

Corny as it sounded in his head, it really did not seem like it had been two and a half months since the night he and Kimberly had slept together for the first time. For two weeks they had tried the friends-with-benefits route, only to admit that things were already far more serious between them than that, and ever since they had made their relationship official time had simply flown by so fast that it left Tommy wondering whether or not this was real or all just some incredibly detailed dream he was having.

The simple fact of the matter was that Tommy could not recall any significant length of time in his adult life prior to now where he had ever been happier: college fraternity parties with Jason; the Red Ranger mission; receiving his doctorate; the Dino Rangers; they had all been amazing experiences that he held dearly in his memories, but they also paled in comparison to these past months with Kimberly.

Just as it had been in high school, they always seemed to bring out the best in each other whenever they were together. Regardless of how they were feeling emotionally or how bad of a day they may have had, as soon as they were with each other once more it was as though everything else became blissfully unimportant, mere background noise to the main attraction that was their renewed relationship.

Unlike in his relationship with Katherine, Tommy actually found himself willing to spend a few of his weeknights doing more than grading homework to insure a good night's sleep, while weekends like this particular Friday evening were almost always spent together, usually alternating between Tommy's home in Reefside and Kimberly's in Valencia. For the first time in seven-plus years, Tommy could finally remember what it felt like to be in a real relationship, one that was built on mutual trust, equal respect, and a fair amount of give and take from both.

"Thanks again for going with me tonight," said Tommy, smiling at Kimberly as he dragged his razor across his cheek. "I know it's not the most exciting way to spend a Friday night, but it's going to be a lot more enjoyable with you around."

"What are you talking about, Tommy? This is way exciting!" said Kimberly, shadowing her eyes. "I mean, you're one of five people in the whole state nominated for Teacher of the Year for crying out loud. What could possibly be boring about that?"

Tommy stopped his shaving mid-stroke and stared at Kimberly with furrowed eyebrows. "You're joking, right?" he questioned, Kimberly shaking her head. "It's a bunch of teachers and their families listening to a bunch of lame monologues from a bunch of boring school district figureheads. I don't know about you, but I can think of a lot of things I'd rather do on a Friday night then sit in a hotel ball room with that crap."

"Yeah, like what?" said Kimberly, laughing as she put the final touches on her eyelashes.

With a few more strokes Tommy's face was perfectly smooth, and he proceeded to wash the excess shaving cream from his face before answering her question. "Making up for lost time, for starters," he replied with a wink. "Besides, I haven't gotten to see you since Monday night so my bed's been pretty lonely."

"Oh, trust me," Kimberly started, turning to face him, running her fingertips across his naked chest, "there'll be plenty of time for that later since I don't plan on going anywhere until Sunday night. I will admit though, I'm looking forward to bragging to Aisha about banging the Teacher of the Year all weekend once you win."

Tommy laughed and said, "_If_ I win, you mean," then paused and added, "Just Aisha?"

Biting her bottom lip, Kimberly tried to fight her smile as she shrugged helplessly. "Trini got a trump card as soon as she started dating Billy. Apparently competing with a Noble Prize winner is a pretty tough business."

"Oh, so what you're saying is you'd rather have Billy than this?" said Tommy, making his pectoral muscles bounce and in turn causing Kimberly to burst out laughing.

"Trust me, I do _not_ want Billy," Kimberly replied, shaking her head and returning to her makeup. "You know that saying about walking a mile in someone else's shoes?" she continued, Tommy nodding, "Yeah, well, I did it literally and let me just say, when wake up in the morning and look down at yourself and see that you've magically grown the penis of one of your best friends it makes certain things a bit awkward to even think about."

Kimberly cringed as she and Tommy shared yet another laugh, something that they never seemed to be short of these days. Even on the worst of days, when neither wanted anything except to stew and vent, they were almost always able to make each other laugh.

"Yeah, I can only imagine how weird it would be if I suddenly had Aisha's boobs," Tommy commented, he too cringing at the thought of switching bodies. After applying some deodorant and aftershave, he turned to Kimberly and said, "I'm gonna go get dressed, 'k?"

"Good," said Kimberly, helping him on his way by pushing him towards the door, "and don't come back in, either. I don't want you to see me in my dress until I'm all the way ready."

Standing in the doorjamb as he stared at Kimberly, Tommy opened his mouth to retort but closed it almost instantly. A joke about it not being a wedding had been on the tip of his tongue, though fortunately he had thought better of letting that one slip. She had come a long way since that day, mostly because of Tommy, but every once in a while the mention of a wedding would cause her to inexplicably burst into tears. She was not pining for Jeff or missing him in any way; it was just such a traumatizing experience all around that it was taking longer to completely get over than she had anticipated.

"You women and your clothes," said Tommy instead as Kimberly rolled her eyes and pushed him out for good. "Much better than a wedding joke," he murmured to himself, chuckling slightly as he turned to the bed where he had laid his clothes out an hour earlier.

Staring at the shirt and tie that Kimberly had picked out for him made Tommy shake his head in disbelief, amazed that he was wearing a colored shirt outside of what he had deemed his _Core_ _Four_: green, white, red, and black. That the shirt and tie were both different shades of pink was even harder for him to believe; he would need ten hands to count the amount of times Katherine had asked him to wear pink, and just as many to count the amount of times he had said no. Still, even with Kimberly it had taken a few days worth of needling before he finally gave in and agreed to wear pink.

"The things I do for love," Tommy muttered, wincing as he grabbed his shirt and examined it up close. "Kim!" he shouted, "Did I miss the memo that said I had to be a walking advertisement for Pepto-Bismol?"

"Shut up and put the damn shirt on, Tommy, or I'm sticking my one of my high heels up your ass!" Kimberly yelled back.

Tommy grumbled a few choice curse words under his breath and proceeded to get dressed with a sour expression, only to find that he looked far better in pink than he ever could have imagined. It was not his favorite color by any stretch of the imagination, but it was nowhere near as bad as he had thought it would be. The tie was much darker than the shirt, almost the shade of a grapefruit, giving a nice contrast and some much needed color to his otherwise bland black suit jacket and matching pants.

"I'm never going to hear the end of this one," he muttered, knowing that Kimberly would forever seize any opportunity she was given to remind him of this night and how she had, like always, been right when it came to fashion.

Flipping his suit jacket over his shoulder Tommy sighed as he headed for the kitchen. He retrieved a beer from the refrigerator and then moved to the living room. Seated in his recliner with his feet up, a beer in one hand and the remote control in the other was his position of choice—excluding a four minute gap where he got up to move his car from the garage into the driveway—and was the same position he was in when Kimberly appeared in the living room some thirty minutes later.

Her flowing, spaghetti-strapped dress was pink, of course, almost identical to Tommy's shirt, and ended a few inches above her knees, while the three-inch gold heels on her feet left her now just six inches shorter than her date instead of the usual nine. For Tommy's part, he had been in the process of taking a drink when he first saw her, and for a few silent moments he seemed to be frozen that way, his mouth open and the bottle just inches away from his lips, before he was finally able to regain some control over himself.

"Wow," he breathed, slowly rising back to his feet. "You look…_amazing_."

"Thanks," said Kimberly, smiling, doing a little twirl before she started towards him, "But amazing wasn't the word that I was looking for."

"Hearing it never gets old, does it?" said Tommy with a laugh, knowing exactly what word Kimberly wanted to hear. Oh, he would let her hear it alright, but not until she had really worked for it.

Still smiling as she closed the gap between them, Kimberly bit her lip and said, "Not when you're the one saying it, no."

"You know, I really need to come up with a new nickname for you," Tommy replied, suppressing the urge to grin. "Maybe I'll call you 'gorgeous,' or 'sweetheart,' or—"

"_Tommy,_" Kimberly whined, half-seriously.

Tommy laughed as he opened his arms for her. "Come here, Beautiful," he murmured, pulling a now happily satisfied Kimberly in for a passionate kiss that left him touching his fingertips to his lips when it had ended. "Is that…strawberry-kiwi lip gloss?"

"Just like you used to love back in high school," said Kimberly, wearing a proud smile. "I had to stop at Walgreen's on my way to work this morning, and as soon as I saw it I knew I had to buy it. You still like it, right?"

"Enough to want seconds," said Tommy, kissing her again, and then again, over and over until he was absolutely certain that his lips had permanently been flavored with the delicious taste of strawberry-kiwi lip gloss. When they finally broke apart, Tommy was all smiles as he reached out and took one of Kimberly's hands. "The other teachers are going to be so jealous when they see who I've got on my arm tonight. I'm actually afraid that that seventy year-old history teacher from Sacramento might have a heart attack when he sees you."

"If you're trying to butter me up for later," said Kimberly, smirking as she paused for a few beats, "you're definitely on the right track," she continued with a wink. "Now come on, or we'll be late. I know you could care less about being on time, but I haven't eaten since lunch and I do _not_ want to miss dinner."

Tommy rolled his eyes, then they suddenly went wide as he pointed and snapped his head towards the door. "Hey, look, it's a giant pachinko head!"

Kimberly, clearly unimpressed, folded her arms across her chest and said, "Oh, don't even try to compare me to Rocky, or I _will_ have to hurt you."

Laughing, Tommy motioned for Kimberly to go first, and as he followed her, he replied, "You know, I wouldn't be making threats like that to a sixth-degree black belt if I was you. I could have you on your back and begging for mercy before you even knew what hit you."

"Well, it's not like it would be the first time you did that to me," Kimberly countered, looking back at Tommy over her shoulder just long enough to shoot him a sly, sultry wink that left him grinning as he shook his head.

"Sex jokes, huh? Whatever happened to the girl who wore sundresses with combat boots?" Tommy questioned, opening the front door for Kimberly before stepping out onto the porch behind her. The glare that was waiting for him after he had finished locking the door and turned around was smug to say the least. "Oh, come on," he continued with a laugh, "I wore mesh tank tops and unbuttoned dress shirts with the sleeves ripped off. I think it's pretty safe to say that we both made our fair share of fashion mistakes back in the day."

"Sundresses with combat boots is the shit," Kimberly muttered, fighting the urge to smile as Tommy pulled her in against his side, leading them down the driveway to the vehicle he only drove on the most special of occasions.

The white 2006 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 with black racing stripes was one of Tommy's most prized possessions, and though he did not often show it off, he definitely went all out on the rare occasions he did. He had taken it to the only place in Reefside he trusted to have it washed and detailed; the paint practically sparkled, there was not a single smudge on any of the windows, and the tires and rims were still as black and shiny as they had been on the day he had bought the car last year.

"Holy crap," said Kimberly, staring at the pristine vehicle with wide eyes. "Expensive much?"

"It was worth it," Tommy replied, smiling as he moved to the passenger side door. "Check this out."

Kimberly watched as Tommy pulled the door handle, expecting it to open outwards like a normal door, laughing when it went straight into the air. "Lamborghini doors, are you freaking serious Tommy?"

"That's not even the half of it," said Tommy, grinning as though the car was his newborn child. "345 Pirelli tires, twenty inch CS1 Lexani rims, seven inch speakers and twelve inch subs from Kenwood, eight inch Sony monitors in each headrest and visor…oh," he continued, gesturing her towards the car, "and you gotta check out this custom interior."

Though her interest in cars was minimal at best, Kimberly smiled and played along simply because Tommy would have done the same for her if she had just arrived from a shopping trip with ten bags full of outfits she wanted to show off. Even so, she could not help but be impressed when she peered inside the car and laid her eyes on the custom interior Tommy was so obviously in love with.

Literally everything in the car, from the gauges on the dashboard to the seats themselves, was white and black, white being the primary color between the two. Only in four very small places was there a color other than white or black, and it was in the front of each headrest; the beak of the white falcon that had been sewn into each headrest was a golden shade of yellow.

"Oh wow, that's beautiful," Kimberly murmured, running her fingers along the bird, unable to feel even the slightest bit of stitching, "and whoever sewed the falcons did a ridiculously good job. I can't even imagine how much you must have spent on a car like this."

"You don't want to know, either," said Tommy, chuckling slightly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "My mom had a conniption fit when she found out how much it cost me, and that was before I told her about all the custom things I had added on. Dad, on the other hand, just wanted to know when I was going to let him take it for a drive."

"Does it go fast?" questioned Kimberly, with an air of naïve innocence. She was laying it on as thickly as possible without giving herself away, letting Tommy have his macho man moment while she played along perfectly.

"Does it go fast? Does it go fast?" Tommy repeated incredulously, Kimberly nodding as he threw his hands up in disbelief. "Of course it goes fast! It has a five-hundred and five horsepower, seven liter, LS7, small-block, eight-cylinder engine for cripes sake! If it had wings it could out-fly the damn Falcon Zord!"

Kimberly smiled and batted her eyelashes slightly at him. "Show me," she dared in a whisper, slipping around Tommy and into the passenger seat, looking up at him and winking as she pulled the door down.

"With pleasure," Tommy muttered to himself, hurrying around to the driver's side. Less than a minute later they were backing out of the driveway, the engine purring so beautifully it had him smiling from ear-to-ear. "You know the road that leads up to my house, after it's all bumpy and stuff?" he questioned.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Ever wondered why that mile long stretch is the only part of a ten mile road that isn't full of bumps and potholes?"

"Not really," said Kimberly, shaking her head as Tommy backed onto said road, "Why?"

"Jason borrowed a steamroller from his dad's construction company and we paved that stretch of road one weekend last year," Tommy replied, recalling the weekend in question with a fond smile, stopping to shift into first gear. "Entirely illegal, of course, but man, once we were done we must have burned through six or seven sets of tires just gassing it up and down the street. Kind of like this!"

And with that he slammed his foot down on the gas, the tires squealing momentarily before the car shot forward at breakneck speeds, going from zero to sixty miles per hour in less than four seconds as Kimberly yelled "Oh shit, oh shit!," one hand grasping the edge of her seat while the other held on firmly to the handle above the window. By the time Tommy was forced to slow down they had reached well over one-hundred and twenty miles per hour, and Kimberly's heart was now pounding against her chest.

"'Does it go fast?' What kind of bullshit question is that?" Tommy muttered, shaking his head while trying not to laugh at Kimberly's pure white face. For a woman who had flown three aerial Zords by the age of sixteen, her tolerance for land speeds was clearly much smaller.

"You've made your point," said Kimberly, relaxing her hands a bit. "Now let's keep it under eighty-five, okay?"

"Party pooper," Tommy replied, smiling as he reached out to take her hand, raising it to her lips and kissing it. "It's gonna be a good night, Kim."

"Yeah," said Kimberly, nodding and squeezing his hand simultaneously, "I think it will be."

--

Several hours later Tommy sat behind the wheel of his car in silence, having listened to Kimberly go on and on for nearly twenty minutes about how this was the coolest thing ever: cooler than being a former Power Ranger; cooler than owning the most successful gymnastics school on the west coast; even cooler than winning multiple gold medals in front of millions at the Pan Global Games. Tommy, however, did not seem to think that winning Teacher of the Year was that cool at all, or if he did he was doing a very good job of hiding it.

The truth of the matter was that Tommy hated being praised for things, much preferring to just go about his business and fly under the radar undetected. That was part of what he loved so much about being a Power Ranger. Sure the media had praised the Green Ranger and the White Ranger, the Red Ranger, and the Black Ranger too, but never Tommy Oliver; it was never _him_ they were talking about, never _his_ face plastered on newspapers and television screens all over the country.

Ever since they had left the hotel Kimberly had done nothing but dot over him, telling him repeatedly how proud she was of him, or commenting on how great she thought the award he had been given was. Had it held a little golden baseball player taking a swing it would have looked like a regular old trophy, but instead a life-size apple made of solid gold took the place of the sports figurine.

"Kim, it's really not that big of a deal," Tommy murmured, growing increasingly uncomfortable each time she said something about his victory. "I mean, I guess it's cool and everything, but I honestly would have rather lost. Did you see the look on that poor lady's face from the Bay Area when they announced my name? Our district superintendent said that she's been nominated seven times over the last twenty-five years and hasn't won it even once. She deserved to win more than I do."

"That's a sweet sentiment Tommy, but the person who deserved to win is the one who won," said Kimberly, smiling at the way Tommy so visibly hated being in the spotlight. Most people she knew would have been ecstatic to receive such a prestigious award, but not Tommy, who had spent the entire five minutes he had been given to make a speech trying miserably to play his victory down. "Why can't you just be happy that you won like every other person on the planet would be in your shoes?"

Tommy half-chuckled half-scoffed and said, "I am happy, Kim. Being named Teacher of the Year is a huge honor, but you know how much I hate being recognized for something as simple as doing my job. It's like, why should I get an award for doing what I'm _supposed_ to be doing? People nowadays expect to be noticed and rewarded for every little thing they do; the award is an honor, like I said, but it's not something I want or need to validate my happiness."

Kimberly stared back at Tommy for a few beats, jokingly pondering the idea of whether or not Tommy was even a real human being. "I don't get it," she said finally, shaking her head. "I'd be calling everyone I knew to tell them that I had won if I was in your shoes, and you haven't even called your parents!"

"I thought you didn't want me telling them about us."

"What does that have to do with telling them about tonight?"

Stopping at a red light, Tommy turned to Kimberly and looked at her blankly. "You know my mom, Kim. I can't just call and tell her that I won, she'll want to play twenty questions about everything that happened. She'll want to know what I wore and if I looked presentable, what I ate for dinner, who I went with…I can deal with not telling her about us, even though you know I don't agree with your reasons for it, but if I call her she _will_ ask who I went with, and I won't outright lie to her; not to my parents."

Sighing, Kimberly averted her eyes and focused on the street through her door's window. "Maybe it's time you tell her then," she murmured, still not looking at Tommy. "It's going to have to happen sooner or later; we might as well just get it over with now so I can start paying my penance."

"You really feel that way, don't you? After all these years you really think my mom hates you?" he asked, Kimberly nodding. Chuckling as he shook his head, Tommy reached out and took Kimberly's hand. "My mom adores you, Kim, and she always has. Sure, there was a little stint there where she thought she hated you, but that's only because I thought I felt the same way."

"Mothers don't forget the girls that broke their son's heart, Tommy," Kimberly argued, finally turning back to him with glistening eyes. "More than anything else though, I guess I'm just…embarrassed about what I did to you. To this day I still haven't forgiven myself for the way I hurt you."

Smiling, Tommy gently ran his thumb over the top of her hand. "Well, you need to," he replied, as the light changed to green and they started driving once more. "I've gotten over it, Kim; if I hadn't, we wouldn't be where we are right now, and you can rest assured my mom has gotten over it as well. It sounds like the only person left to get over it is you."

"I'm not you, Tommy, the guy who lets nothing bother him," said Kimberly, almost as though she was bitter over this fact. "I can't just forget things like that. I wish I could, but I can't. Regardless of how much time has passed since then, part of me will always hate what I did to you and that's all there is to it."

"No one expects you to forget what happened, Beautiful, but you can't let it eat you up like this either. It's one of those—" Tommy started, falling silent when his cell phone started to ring. "Hang on," he continued, reaching into his pocket and extracting his phone, looking at the caller ID with a wry grin.

"Who is it?"

"The madre," said Tommy, flipping his phone open and raising it to his ear. "Hello—"

"Hi Tommy—"

"—you've reached the voicemail of Tommy Oliver," he continued, shooting a wink to Kimberly who looked like she could not decide whether to laugh or lecture. "I can't come to the phone right now, but if you leave your name, number, and a message I'll call you back as soon as I can. BEEEEEEP!"

"Oh, you are just a regular old comedian, aren't you son?" said Janet Oliver, she and Tommy sharing a laugh.

"Don't act like the first dozen times you fell for it weren't funny, Mom," Tommy teased, looking to Kimberly with a reassuring smile because the nervousness on her face was so visibly evident. "If you're calling to find out what happened, I won," he added, pausing and rolling his eyes when his mother started squealing with delight on the other end of the phone. "Mom…Mom, seriously…it's really not that big of a deal…Aww Mom, do I really have to?"

Sighing, Tommy covered the speaker with his hand and turned to Kimberly. "Told ya she'd want to hear all about it." Swallowing hard, Kimberly braced herself for the worst and nodded to Tommy, signaling that she was ready for whatever hellfire and brimstone Mrs. Oliver planned on raining down on her. Squeezing her hand in understanding, Tommy continued, "Well, what do you want to know Mom? It was a nice little ceremony in the ballroom of the Los Angeles Hilton…I don't know, there were maybe two hundred or so people there, mostly teachers and administrators with their families.

"Yes, Mom, I had the steak…It was okay, a little overdone for me, but I wasn't expecting a Morton's steak or anything spectacular like that either…A lot of people talked, superintendents and principals and other teachers…You know me, Mom, it took everything I had not to fall asleep in the middle of the whole thing…Yeah, then they announced the winner, I gave a little speech, we had dessert and danced a little bit and that was it…Who'd I dance with? What, are you expecting to know the person or something?…I wasn't trying to be _fresh_, Mom…Alright, alright, it's this girl I've been seeing for a couple months now, okay?…Yeah, I already told you that Kat and I were done a long time ago…I dunno, Mom…Yeah, I guess you could say it's pretty serious."

"If you ever wanna get laid again, it's serious," Kimberly grumbled, pretending to be angry.

Tommy just smiled her way and continued on with his conversation. "Yeah, Mom, I think you actually know her in fact…Her name? Here, why don't you just talk to her yourself?"

And before Kimberly could do anything about it Tommy had thrust the phone into her hands with a Don't-Even-Try-To-Get-Out-Of-This-One look on his face, an expression that left no room for argument. Glaring at him with narrowed eyes, Kimberly gave Tommy a one finger salute and took the phone, raising it to her ear with clear trepidation.

"H-hello?" said Kimberly meekly.

"Kimberly, is that you?" said Janet.

Kimberly's eyes went wide with surprise. "How did you know it was me, Mrs. Oliver?"

Tommy laughed heartily at this, not the least bit surprised that his mother had instantly recognized Kimberly's voice. Even into her late fifties Janet had a memory like a steel trap, able to recall nearly every voice and face she had ever come in contact with, no matter how brief her encounter with them was.

Once again Tommy found himself sitting in silence, listening to Kimberly's side of the conversation with a smile that was so very happy. It only took a matter of moments before Kimberly's entire presence seemed to relax, and soon after that she and Janet were talking and laughing like old friends catching up from a long absence, even sharing a few quiet jokes about the man seated next to her. Tommy did not care if her laughter was at the expense of himself—though he knew it was more likely to be his memory they were making fun of—just as long as she was laughing, and hopefully realizing that his mother did not begrudge her for the past.

By the time Kimberly handed him the phone back some fifteen minutes later Tommy could tell that her fears had been banished. He took the phone from her and smiled brightly, overjoyed at the expression Kimberly now wore: all smiles; suddenly affectionate, leaning across the car and nuzzling her nose against Tommy's arm as he resumed his conversation with his mother.

"Hi, Mom…Yeah, I know, crazy huh?" he murmured, sharing a pleasant smile with Kimberly. "I know, Mom…Yeah, I would have told you sooner, but we wanted to make sure this was the real thing before we started announcing it to everyone," he continued, lying to his mother for the first time in years, all for Kimberly's sake. "You know how it is, Mom…I don't think either of us intended for it to happen, it just kind of did…Yeah, yeah, I'm very happy, Mom, everything is going great…Dinner next weekend? I don't think I have plans, but I'll have to check with Kim and get back to you, k?…Alright, Mom…Yeah, I love you too, and tell Dad I said hi for me as well, okay?…Okay, bye Mom."

"Alright, let's hear it," said Kimberly, once he had hung up and returned his phone to his pants pocket. "Let's hear you say 'I told you so.'"

Tommy laughed. "Well, I did, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did," said Kimberly, smiling as she nodded her head. "I don't know why I didn't listen to you in the first place. Now that I've actually talked to your mom, I kind of just feel silly about the whole thing. Your mom has always been so nice to me—"

"That's because she knows how happy you make me," said Tommy, wrapping the arm he was not using to steer around Kimberly's shoulder, allowing her to make something of a pillow out of his arm as she nestled the side of her head against it.

"You make me happier," Kimberly murmured, certain her cheeks would hurt in the morning from all the smiling she was doing. It was worth it though, to feel this happy, happier than she could ever recall being.

"Yeah, I guess I'd be pretty happy too if I was dating me," replied Tommy, laughing.

Kimberly smacked his arm and gave him an admonishing look, but joined his laughter nonetheless. "Oh, so the man who has led four teams of Power Rangers is a narcissist? Big surprise there."

Their teasing, playful banter continued off and on like this until they pulled into Tommy's garage nearly two hours later. When they entered through the garage and into the kitchen Kimberly quickly declared that she was going to change, but as she turned to leave Tommy reached out and took hold of her wrist, pulling her into his chest.

"Don't," he whispered, one hand on the small of her back, the other trailing lazily through her long auburn locks as he kissed her forehead. "I've been staring at you in that dress all night, the least you can do is give me the pleasure of tearing it off you."

"Feeling a little frisky, are we?" Kimberly teased, running her fingers up and down Tommy's chest, tilting her head in the universal signal that said she wanted to be kissed. Tommy was more than happy to oblige, but just seconds after he had captured her lips the house phone started to ring. He groaned angrily and moved to answer the phone, but Kimberly held onto him firmly, refusing to let him go, tearing her lips away just long enough to say, "Let the machine get it."

And so he did, hoisting Kimberly onto his waist and carrying her to the bedroom, completely oblivious to the fact that that one message would ultimately lead to more trouble than he ever could have expected.

--

Sitting at the kitchen table late the following morning, Kimberly standing against the wall some fifteen feet away from him, Tommy tried as hard as he could not to replay the message from the night before in his head. It had only been ten minutes since he had played the message for the first time, thinking that Kimberly's presence in the room would not have been a problem. Now, however, as she glared at him with a fear-inspiring look, it continued to repeat itself in his head, Tommy's silently wishing that he had waited until she was not around before playing it.

"_Hey Tommy, it's Andros. Long time no talk, huh? Listen man, I heard about what happened with you and Katherine. Sorry to hear about the breakup, but uh…I hope you don't mind me asking this, but are you still coming to Ashley's charity thing tonight? I understand if you don't want to since Kat's going to be there and everything, but Ashley was really hoping you would still come, and I told her I'd call you to find out for sure, so that's what I'm doing. Anyway man, call me back when you get this and let me know, alright? Talk to you later."_

"I still don't understand why you have to go now that you and Kat aren't together anymore," said Kimberly, almost icily.

Setting his coffee mug down on the table, Tommy rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed audibly. "Because I don't break my promises, Kim, especially not to one of my best friends. I agreed to go as a favor to Andros—long before Jason decided to have his party the weekend _after_ his birthday—and that's what I'm going to do. What I still don't understand is why you're so adamant about not wanting me to go. I mean, it's just some charity dinner and a silent auction, not a party at the freaking Playboy Mansion or something."

"You know why I don't want you to go, Tommy," Kimberly replied, folding her arms across her chest, staring back at him defiantly. "Andros just said that Kat is going to be there. She practically blew your phone up for a month straight after you guys broke up, from what I've heard she still hasn't gotten over you, and to be quite honest I don't really trust her."

"Do you trust me?" asked Tommy, slowly rising to his feet.

Kimberly rolled her eyes. "That's beside the point."

"No it's not," said Tommy firmly, closing the distance between them. "Just answer the question, yes or no? Do you trust me?"

The answer came to Kimberly before she could even think on it, causing her to sigh as she said, "Yes, I do trust you, Tommy, but like I just said, I don't trust Kat anymore. Who knows what she'll try to pull with me not there?"

Standing in front of her, Tommy reached out and took one of Kimberly's hands. "Then come," he replied. "It's not like Jason's going to lose sleep or anything if you're a couple hours late to his birthday party."

Allowing her eyes to flutter shut for a few moments, Kimberly shook her head as she reopened them and murmured, "I can't, Tommy. I already missed his party last year because of Jeff, and Jason still hasn't let me hear the end of it. If I'm even five minutes late…"

"I don't know what to tell you then, Beautiful," said Tommy, pulling her against his chest for a one-armed hug, rubbing his hand up and down her back. "Listen, nothing is going to happen between Kat and I, okay? We've barely even talked since the breakup, so trust me when I say that there's nothing for you to worry about; no old feelings or any of that crap, and if for some reason she does try something, I won't let it happen."

"Promise?" said Kimberly, looking up, staring into his deep brown eyes for the answer that would come before it had been verbalized.

Tommy smiled down at her. "I promise," he whispered, sealing it with a kiss.

Kimberly nodded, but inside she was not entirely sure that she believed him. More than anything in the world she wanted to trust Tommy, and ninety-nine percent of the time she did, but this whole situation just screamed danger to her: Tommy and Katherine in the same place; none of the other Rangers around, or at least none that Kimberly had ever met before. It made a very large part of her sad to know that Jeff was still having this much of an affect on her more than six months after their failed wedding.

She did not want it to be this way, not even a little bit, but this was simply one of those things that she had no control over. Maybe one day it would go away for good; or maybe it wouldn't, and Kimberly would be forced to live the rest of her life never being fully able to trust whatever man she was involved with. The latter of the two possible options scared her more than any words could ever say.

Tommy, however, felt even worse about the whole thing than Kimberly did. He had not really wanted to attend the event in the first place, but Katherine had badgered him about it for so long, literally broken down his defenses, that he instantly gave in and said yes the first time Andros called and asked him to come. Now, despite the fact that he did not want to go, he knew that he had to, and what was even worse than that was that Kimberly clearly did not trust him to be in the same room as Katherine without her there too.

Thinking about what had happened earlier as he drove to the event later that night, Tommy silently wondered why he had not reacted the same way to Kimberly that he had to Katherine when put in almost identical situations. Sure, Kimberly had not threatened their relationship when he told her he was going, but there was also the contending fact that he and Katherine were not even on friendly terms so the odds of anything happening between them were exponentially smaller.

So why had he not blown up in Kimberly's face? Why had he not chastised her for not trusting him, just like he had done to Katherine on the night of his birthday? Almost at once the answer came to him, causing Tommy to sigh as he shot down the freeway in his Jeep, en route to Los Angeles for the second time in as many days.

He did not get defensive or yell at Kimberly because her actions were not all her own; part of her was still very much hurting from what had happened with Jeff, perhaps the only excuse in the world that could have prevented an outburst. With Katherine he would have yelled; with Kimberly it only made him want to work even harder, just so he could prove to her how much he truly loved her with every ounce of energy in his body.

Entering the ball room of yet another hotel this weekend, Tommy immediately started to look around for Andros, and breathed a deep sigh of relief when he saw the long, blond-and-black hair of his old friend amongst a group of others whom Tommy also instantly recognized: T.J. Johnson's bald head; Cole Evans and his shaggy brown do; Eric Myers' military style crew cut; Wes Collins' dirty blond surfer hair, all of which caused a smile to creep across Tommy's face. If he was going to be spending most of the night here, at least he could share his misery with some fellow ex-Rangers, certain that they, like him, were here because of their girlfriends and wives, ex-girlfriend in Tommy's case of course.

As he approached the group, Tommy pondered for what had to be the millionth time how he had come to be friends with this bunch. Like Jason, Tommy had served with all of them on the Red Ranger mission a few years back, but once they had all gone their separate ways it was as though Jason had forgotten about all of them except Tommy, almost as if befriending them would be like mixing business with pleasure. Tommy, however, a self-admitted brooder though he was, had always found great joy in having many friends, something his hectic childhood had not allowed him before finally settling in Angel Grove.

"Hey, hey, hey, there he is!" exclaimed T.J., raising a beer bottle in salute.

"Oh my God, it's really him!" said Wes, jumping up and down, squealing like a thirteen year-old girl at a Backstreet Boys concert with one hand covering his mouth, the other one pointing at Tommy. "I can't believe it you guys, it's really him. It's Tommy Oliver!"

Tommy rolled his eyes as he entered the group, extending his hand to Andros who was nearest, making his way around their semi-circle formation. "Hilarious, Wes," he muttered lowly upon reaching the Red Time Force Ranger. "Absolutely fucking hilarious."

"Hey now, what would Kat think if she heard you talking like that?" Cole interjected, jokingly slapping Tommy's arm as five former Red Rangers stared at him in disbelief. "Uh, did I say something wrong?"

He obviously had not gotten the memo.

"We, uh, we aren't together anymore, Cole," Tommy replied, not surprised that the news had already traveled through the extended Ranger Circle, even less surprised that it had flown right over Cole's head. Seeing the embarrassed and apologetic look on Cole's face, Tommy quickly added, "Hey man, don't worry about it. Trust me, I got over it real quick."

"As evidenced by the date you clearly don't have," said Eric dryly, causing a split between the group, those who laughed and those who wore curiously confused looks, as if silently asking Tommy why he of all people had no date for the night.

Tommy was one of the ones who laughed, quickly firing back with, "She didn't want to embarrass any of _your_ women, that's all, and believe me, being the original Pink, she _would_ have done just that if she had come."

Wes raised a quizzical eyebrow at this. "You and Kim are back together?" he questioned, Tommy nodding. "Dude, when did that happen? I heard about you and Kat from Jen, like, the day after it happened, but I had no idea about Kim. Last I even heard about her was from you, and you said she was engaged to some douche bag."

"Didn't work out," said Tommy, quickly snatching a beer bottle from a passing waiter so he had something in his mouth to prevent himself from saying too much. "Anyway," he continued after swallowing a long drink, "I'm not surprised you didn't hear. Kat loves to gossip just like the rest of the girls, but not when it makes her look bad."

Andros shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know Tommy, the way I heard it from Ashley, Kat pretty much shouldered all of the blame for you guys breaking up. She said she didn't trust you and was jealous of some other girl when she had no reason to be. I doubt she said those things to make herself look good."

"Seriously?" said Tommy, looking around at the group, all of whom—with the exclusion of Cole, of course—nodded their heads to confirm that they had indeed heard stories similar to the one Andros had been told. "Wow," he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't think she had it in her."

They all laughed about that, and from there the conversation turned much less serious until a visibly pregnant Ashley Hammond decided to intervene a little while later. Eric was in the midst of a fairly raunchy joke when the Yellow Space Ranger appeared, causing the whole group to fall into a silent, respectful acknowledgement.

"Oh, please, don't let me interrupt you Eric," said Ashley, smiling at the Quantum Ranger. "What exactly does the naked priest end up doing with the bar stool and the beer bottle?"

Eric's face became a shade of red more crimson than his Ranger uniform, while everyone else in the group laughed at his expense. Everyone except Andros, that is, who merely chuckled as he approached Ashley.

"Everything going okay, sweetie?" asked Andros, rubbing the sides of his wife's arms. "Do you need me to do anything?"

Ashley smiled and gave Andros' red tie a tug, followed by a quick kiss. "Everything is going great; well, almost everything, anyway. That's kind of why I'm here," she replied, looking around at the other men, her eyes gleaming when they settled on Tommy. "Just the man I was looking for." Tommy suddenly felt the urge to run, everyone else looking at him in confusion as Ashley approached him and murmured, "Can I borrow you for just a minute?"

Though he sensed danger in ways that only five years as a Power Ranger could detect, he swallowed hard and nodded, looking back at the guys and shrugging before he turned to follow Ashley around a corner.

"What's up?" said Tommy, after she had stopped and turned to face him.

"I have a huge favor to ask you," said Ashley, the hope evident in her voice even before she had told him what that favor actually was, which also happened to be Tommy's next question. "Part of the silent auction is a kiss-auction. They're huge with the rich, middle aged women that come to these things. I got some of my friends to do it, but two of them backed out at the last minute and I haven't been able to find a replacement. Since your single and everything, I was wondering if you'd be willing to help out."

Tommy laughed and shook his head. "I'd love to, Ashley, bu—"

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" exclaimed Ashley, simultaneously jumping up and down before throwing her arms around Tommy. "You have no idea how much this means to me. You literally just saved the day. Thank you so much!"

And then she was gone, running off as fast as she could in high heels and a dress. For quite some time Tommy just stared at the spot where she had been standing, wondering whether or not that had really just happened. All sorts of thoughts began to flood his head when the realization set in that it had not simply been the fiction of his mind, but that Ashley genuinely believed he was going to do it.

Was he going to do it? No, he told himself with a laugh, shaking his head at the thought. He couldn't auction himself off when he had a girlfriend that he loved, even if it was just a kiss for charity, in the form of a hospital that Tommy very much respected, one that gave care to sick and injured children even when their parents could not afford it. Plus, Ashley had said these things were a hit with rich, middle aged women. Certainly Kimberly would not be mad at him for kissing a woman in her late forties if it earned a respectable sum for an even more respectable charity. Hell, if Kimberly was there right now, Tommy was almost positive that she would encourage him to do it.

With no intention of doing so, Tommy had just bludgeoned his mind into agreeing with Ashley's request, but even though he had decided to do it, it would not happen without first laying down some ground rules. Retrieving another beer from the same passing waiter, Tommy marched off to where Ashley was standing at the other end of the spacious ballroom. He said nothing as he approached her from behind, simply taking her by the elbow and raising a finger to the people she was talking to as he pulled her away, letting them know that he would return her back to them when he was done with her.

"Alright, here's the deal," said Tommy firmly, once he had her relatively alone. "If I'm going to do this there are a few conditions. If you can't agree to them, then I'm sorry, but you'll have to find yourself another kisser."

Ashley raised an eyebrow and said, "What are your conditions?"

"First, no tongue," Tommy answered, raising his pointer finger as Ashley laughed and nodded her agreement. "Second," he continued, adding his middle finger, "three seconds, tops."

"Five."

"Four."

"Fine," said Ashley, nodding. "What else?"

Tommy stood a little bit straighter now, folding his arms across his chest, silently telling Ashley that this condition was one that was absolutely non-negotiable. "No Kat," he told her firmly.

A curious expression came onto Ashley's face at that. "Are you serious?" she asked, Tommy nodding just once. "That's fine, I'll make sure to let her know not to bid, but just so you know, I don't think she would have anyway."

"Oh yeah? Why is that?" said Tommy.

Ashley smiled. "She's got a boyfriend, Tommy," she replied, patting Tommy on the shoulder as she started to move passed him.

"What?" said Tommy, turning around. "Who?"

Ashley looked back, but did not stop walking. "I don't know," she answered, shrugging. "He's never around when she's with us, and no matter how hard we try to beat it out of her, she won't tell any of us who it is. It's getting a bit annoying, really."

She then waved goodbye and was gone once more, disappearing back into the crowd of people. Two hours and a four-second kiss with a fifty-year old woman that had gone for twenty-five hundred dollars later, Tommy sat alone at the bar, sipping on a beer and trying to decide whether he had been there long enough to leave. His hope of company with his fellow Red Rangers had disappeared when their girlfriends and wives had all come calling, leaving Tommy to fend for himself amongst a sea comprised mostly of strangers.

He was just about to get up and leave when a hand fell on his back, a touch he instantly recognized even before the soft, accented voice said, "Can I buy you a drink before you go?"

Tommy squeezed his eyes shut momentarily, prayed it was all a dream, and then turned around on his bar stool to find that it was really Katherine standing behind him, dressed to the nines in a sultry black cocktail dress, just as gorgeous as he remembered her being. This was exactly the situation he had promised Kimberly he would not put himself in, yet here he was right in the middle of it. Then again, Ashley had also said that Katherine had found a new boyfriend, so maybe it would not be as bad as he feared.

"Well I guess that depends on what you're here for," Tommy replied coolly, eyeing his ex-girlfriend carefully.

"I'm not here to try and win you back, if that's what you're worried about. I know you're happy with Kimberly, and I would never try to break you guys apart," said Katherine, slowly turning to look at the empty seat next to Tommy's. "Can I sit?"

Thinking about it for just a moment, Tommy sighed and nodded, but reminded himself to keep his guard up just in case Katherine's intentions were not as honest as she had proclaimed them to be. "I heard you've got a new boyfriend," he commented as Katherine sat and then nodded. "You gonna tell me who it is?"

Katherine smiled. "Only if you promise not to freak out, and also promise that you won't tell him I told you."

"Oh, so I know the guy?" asked Tommy, Katherine nodding once more. "Alright," he continued with a chuckle, "I promise. Who's the guy?"

"Jason," said Katherine, smiling so brightly it was astounding.

In the seven years they had been together and the few months they had not, Tommy was hard pressed to recall a time where he had ever seen Katherine's light up as they had when naming his best friend. For a few silent moments Tommy stared at her in shock, this time not questioning the reality of what he had just heard, but his very sanity as a whole. Jason and Katherine? Like, seriously? Had he somehow been unknowingly sucked into some sort of Bizarro world where everything was topsy-turvy? Was this Oz, or perhaps Wonderland?

"Are you going to say anything, Tommy?" asked Katherine, after a few silent moments had turned into well over a minute and a half.

Tommy blinked rapidly and shook his head clear. "Sorry," he muttered, trying to play it off as casually as he could.

"It's okay," said Katherine, smiling. "I expected you to be surprised. Hell, I was pretty surprised myself when it happened. I mean, I always thought Jason was rather cute and everything, but I had never felt anything even remotely close to romantic until very recently."

Again, Tommy did not immediately reply, though he did remind himself not to drift off for a second time. He did not want to say anything without first figuring out how he actually felt. This was big news, and his shared history with both parties involved required his responses to be genuine, despite the way things had ended between himself and Katherine.

"Are you happy?" asked Tommy, determining that her response would decide how he felt.

Smiling, Katherine nodded and said, "Very. It's so great, Tommy. I just…I feel more alive then I've felt in years."

"Ah, well, I'm sorry I made you feel like a corpse for so long," Tommy replied dryly, a small part of him stinging from her response.

"Oh, Tommy, I didn't mean it like that," said Katherine apologetically. "I obviously wasn't thinking when I said it, either. It seems like things have a way of coming out badly when I talk to you, doesn't it?"

Tommy nodded, but said nothing, forcing Katherine to try and dig herself out of this hole she had so gallantly gotten herself into.

"Look, Tommy, can you honestly say you were happier with me then you are with Kimberly?" asked Katherine, Tommy looking slightly embarrassed with himself as he shook his head. "That's all I was trying to say, I just worded it badly. I think we both know in our hearts, no matter how hard we tried to make it work, it just wasn't meant to be."

"I never sought out to be more than friends with Kim, you know," said Tommy, taking a drink from his beer bottle, as if that response somehow validated the genuineness of his happiness over Katherine's.

"I never sought out to be more than friends with Jason, either," Katherine replied, shaking her head. "But isn't that how almost all relationships start out in the first place? You and I just didn't jump right into it, and from what you told me, you and Kimberly didn't either the first time around. The truth of the matter is that we tried our hearts out, failed miserably, and have now found happiness elsewhere. It's as simple as that."

Setting his drink down on the bar, Tommy furrowed his brow and asked, "What's your point?"

"My point is that it's silly for us to behave like children around each other," said Katherine firmly. "We started out as friends, Tommy, and regardless of what happened after that, I want you to know that you will always have my friendship if you want it."

Tommy did not have to think on it for very long. With his mind made up, he grinned and said, "Can I ask you something?"

Katherine smiled. "Sure," she replied, nodding. "Ask away."

"Didn't you realize after the first time that pretending to forget your boyfriend's birthday leads to bad things?" asked Tommy, laughing heartily.

Katherine stared back at him, caught off guard for just the briefest of moments, and then she was laughing right along with him. In a matter of just minutes it had become painfully obvious between them that things were so much easier without the blanket of a dying relationship hanging over their heads.

"He knows I'm going to be a bit late for the party," said Katherine, once the laughter had ceased. "Speaking of the party," she continued, turning to the clock behind the bar and then back to Tommy, "I should probably get going soon. Are you going as well?"

Tommy nodded. "Yeah, I am. As a matter of fact, I was actually just about to leave when you showed up. I think this is the first time in seven years that I'm going to be late for something because of _you_."

Katherine laughed and rolled her eyes. "What are you talking about? The party started over two hours ago, you're already late."

Smirking, Tommy shook his head. "Ah, but therein lies the loophole. Jason knows I'm going to be late, Kim told him between two and three hours. Now, as I was about to leave fifteen minutes ago, it's been two hours and fifteen minutes since Jason's party started, and it takes an hour to get to his house, I'm going to be at least fifteen minutes late on account of you, even longer if we keep standing here talking."

"Now I see why you have a PhD," said Katherine, feigning awe. "You bullshitted your way right through the doctorate program."

"Oh, is that what you think?" said Tommy, raising his eyebrows as Katherine laughed and nodded. "Don't even make me get into the biological, physiological, and morphological physics required to build a power source that is not only strong enough to continuously provided fully-charged morphs, but also able to do so without killing the user of said source in the process. Ladies and gentleman, I present to you my lovely creation, the Dino Gems."

Rolling her eyes as Tommy bowed on his seat, Katherine stood up and shook her head at him. "Yeah, yeah, I've already told you a thousand times how impressive that was. What else have you got, though?"

"Doesn't matter, I don't need anything else when I've got that," Tommy answered, standing and grinning victoriously. "You know, it sucks we were broken up at the time, 'cause I looked damn good in black spandex."

Again, Katherine rolled her eyes, this time pushing Tommy towards the exit. "In the words of our former Yellow Ranger, 'Whatever you say, flyboy,'" she replied, sharing another laugh with Tommy. "So tell me something," she continued. "Are you okay with me and Jason? I know it may seem silly, but considering that I'm your ex-girlfriend and Jason is your best friend, we both kind of want your approval on this one."

Tommy smiled and threw his arm around Katherine's shoulder, giving her a playful one-armed hug against his side. "If you guys are happy together, then I'm happy for you, and more than okay with whatever you guys decide to do."

"Really?" said Katherine, looking up at a nodding Tommy. "Thank you," she murmured, smiling happily as they stepped out of the hotel lobby and into the cool of night. "That really means a lot to me."

"Well I'm glad, but the fact of the matter is that it's your life, Kat. Even if I didn't approve, I couldn't stop you guys from being together," Tommy replied, releasing his hug and bringing their walk to a stop on the sidewalk as he looked around from side to side, then back to Katherine. "Where are you parked?"

"I couldn't get a spot in the parking lot so I had to use the garage across the street," said Katherine. "Why?"

"Come on, I'll walk you to your car," said Tommy, starting them along once more.

"That's nice of you, Tommy, but you really don't have to," said Katherine. "I'm a big girl, you know."

Tommy smiled and nodded. "I know, Kat, but that doesn't change the fact that it's ten o'clock at night and you're an attractive woman in the middle of downtown Los Angeles. Just humor me and let me make sure you get to your car safe, okay?"

Katherine laughed, and as they stepped into the crosswalk, murmured, "And they say chivalry is dead."

"Not on my watch," said Tommy, winking. They chatted casually for a few more minutes, but then they had reached Katherine's car and were saying their goodbyes, in the form of a friendly hug and a kiss to Tommy's cheek from Katherine. "Are you heading straight to Jason's?" he asked, closing the door to her car once she had settled into her seat, waiting for her to roll down the window.

"No, I have to make a pit stop at the supermarket on the way, why?"

"Just wondering," Tommy lied, not wanting her to know that his concern for her went beyond just getting her to her car in one piece. When it came to the three most important women in his life: his mom, Kimberly, and Katherine, he took no prisoners in regards to their safety. If he had not verified her detour, he would have presumed her late for no reason and started to worry. It was not necessarily a trait he was proud of, being so overprotective, but all the years he had spent leading the Power Rangers had forever engrained in him a need to look out for the people closest to him.

Katherine rolled her eyes and waved goodbye, bringing her window back up as she backed out of her parking spot. Fifteen minutes later Tommy was back in his Jeep and speeding along the highway, even sharing a laughing middle finger exchange with Katherine when he passed her Mustang on the way to Jason's house.

It was just after eleven o'clock when he pulled up to Jason's own secluded house, his on the outskirts of Angel Grove. Tommy eyed the scene outside curiously, caught somewhat off guard as he parked in front of a nearly deserted house. Only the cars of Jason, Zack, Billy, Rocky, Adam, and Kim were present, an oddly small crowd for a birthday party that Zack had been charged with planning.

He approached the front door carefully, that sixth sense he had developed as a Ranger kicking in in full force. Something was not right, he was certain of that. What it was, however…

The front door creaked as he pushed it open, Tommy stepping into the eerie silence of the foyer. "Hello?" he called out, looking around as he started to make his way towards the kitchen. "Lucy, I'm home!"

"We're in here, Tommy!" Tanya replied from the living room, simultaneously diverting Tommy in that direction.

"What's going on?" asked Tommy, looking around at a rather depressed scene. Kimberly and Jason were nowhere in sight, and neither were Aisha or Trini. Those who remained: Adam, Billy, Rocky, Tanya, and Zack, were all sullen-faced and spread out across the various pieces of living room furniture.

"We're not sure," said Billy, shaking his head. "According to someone else who is no longer presently in attendance, Kimberly went for a walk with a bottle of tequila, and was rather belligerent when she returned. She started screaming incoherently about how she knew she was right and how it was happening all over again. Jason, Aisha, and Trini managed to get her upstairs, while we were all charged with removing any non-Ranger from the house. That was over thirty minutes ago and we haven't been told anything else since."

"Yeah," Rocky interjected, "Just some muffled voices every now and then, probably when things get really loud."

Tommy narrowed his eyes, looking around at each of them before settling on Adam, usually the most calm and rational amongst them. "They've been up there for half an hour and no one has come down?"

Adam shook his head. "No, man, we don't have a clue what's happening. Rocky, Zack, and I tried to sneak up there a few minutes after they disappeared, but Trini saw us, threatened to cut our balls off, and then force feed them to us, and that pretty much ended us playing Spy Kids."

"Shit," Tommy muttered, rubbing the back of his neck, somehow instinctively knowing that Kimberly's current state had something to do with him. "I gotta get up there," he continued, seeing their faces sink even more when they realized that someone else was getting to go up. "I'll come back down and let you guys know what's going on as soon as I can, alright?"

They all nodded as Tommy turned to leave, but no one said anything, nor did they believe that Tommy would return with news anytime soon. They had heard that over half an hour ago from Aisha, the good cop to Trini's bad cop after the first Yellow Ranger had threatened the reproductive parts of every remaining male sans Billy, who had merely avoided her wrath by being smart enough not to tag along.

Taking the stairs two and three at a time, Tommy could hear the voices growing louder and more distinct as he shortened the distance between himself and the closed bathroom door from behind which the voices were coming from. He did not announce himself, only demanded entry by pounding on the door with all his might as soon as he had reached it.

"I have a nail file and I _will_ use—" Trini started, falling silent upon yanking the door open and seeing Tommy standing there. "Oh, it's you," she muttered coldly.

Tommy raised a curious eyebrow and prepared to reply, but was cut off as Jason came bounding towards him, pushing his way passed Trini and into the hallway, closing the door behind him. "Tell me you didn't kiss Katherine," Jason demanded, wearing a menacing look on his face.

"What? No!" Tommy practically sputtered, shaking his head.

"Don't bullshit me, Tommy," Jason replied, his fists balled at his sides. "Put it on thirteen years of friendship that you didn't kiss Kat at Ashley's charity thing."

Raising up his hands, Tommy waved them defensively. "Jason," he spoke, very calmly, "I swear to you on thirteen years of friendship that I did not kiss Kat. We had a drink and talked, that's it, man."

"Then what's this crap I hear about you walking arm-in-arm with Kat and kissing her in a parking garage?" said Jason, looking like he was chomping at the bit for a chance to physically demolish the closest thing to a brother he had ever had.

"It's what you just said it is, Jason, it's crap," Tommy answered, chuckling in disbelief. "You want to know what happened, here's what happened. I'm going to give you a very detailed rundown just so you know I'm not fucking around with you. Kat approached me at the bar and asked to talk. I _reluctantly_ agreed, but we talked and both decided we still could be friends. She also told me about you guys, which I'm not supposed to tell you, but am doing anyway since you're making your relationship painfully fucking obvious! After that she asked for my approval, which I gave, just so you know! Then we left and I walked her to her car, and when we were walking I gave her a kinda-sorta hug thing. Then we hugged at the car, she kissed me on the cheek, we said goodbye and that was it!"

"Swear to me," said Jason, through gritted teeth.

"Fuck off, Jason," Tommy replied, shaking his head. "I already swore once, _and_ explained myself completely. If you still don't believe me after that then our friendship isn't worth a tenth of what I thought it was."

Jason was practically shaking as he stared at Tommy, so visibly conflicted in what to believe. Right when it seemed like he had reached his breaking point, however, his face relaxed and he let out a deep sigh. "I'm sorry, bro," he muttered, looking down, no longer able to meet Tommy's eyes. "Kim was yelling about you kissing Kat, and at first I didn't want to believe it, but the longer I thought about it the more it started to eat at me."

"It's fine," Tommy muttered, slightly angered at the situation, but focusing his attention elsewhere. "What's going on with Kim?"

"I don't know, man," Jason answered, slowly raising his eyes. "She's way drunk, and her story keeps getting more and more dramatic each time she finishes puking. The only consistent part is that you kissed two girls, one of which was Kat, and that she knew she couldn't trust you. Did you really kiss another girl, bro?"

Tommy closed his eyes and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I did, but it's not what it sounds like. It was a fifty year-old lady and it was for charity. Granted, she was definitely a cougar, but still…Ashley was in a bind and talked me into helping out. It lasted four seconds, no tongue, and it didn't mean a damn thing."

"Hey, man, you don't have to explain yourself to me," said Jason, waving his hands in front of his face. "It's Kimberly who's been calling you every curse word under the sun for the last forty minutes. Tell her for yourself."

Nodding, Tommy started for the door, but something in the back of his head made him stop. In less than thirty minutes from the time he had left, regardless of the twisted version she had received, Kimberly had somehow been given news of his night at the event. How was that even possible? Unless…

"She had me followed, Jase," Tommy muttered, methodically turning to look at his oldest and closest friend with tears brimming in his eyes. "I knew she didn't want me alone with Kat, but to actually have me followed?"

Jason started to speak, hoping to warn Tommy not to make the same mistake he had in thinking only with his emotions, but before he could string together three words Tommy was barging into the bathroom.

"Get out!" he barked at Aisha and Trini, pointing towards the hallway. Trini made to argue, but Tommy's head snapped so quickly in her direction that it actually caused her to jump back in fright. "I'm sorry," he muttered, instantly regretting his outburst as the two women walked past him with darkened glares. Once they had left, however, his anger returned at full strength. "Tell me you didn't have me followed," he demanded, staring at Kimberly with venom in his eyes.

"Go to hell," Kimberly grumbled, from her weakened position hunched over the toilet.

"Don't fuck with me, Kim!" said Tommy, his voice raising with every word. "Did you or did you not have me followed tonight?"

"Yeah, I did, Tommy," Kimberly replied, rising to her feet with newfound strength. "And you know what, I'm glad I did, because you did exactly what I knew you were going to do! You fucking kissed Kat and there's nothing you can say to argue because I have a witness who saw the whole fucking thing!"

"Yeah, well your witness is fucking retarded! Who the fuck did you hire, Kim, Bulk and fucking Skull?" Tommy roared, his blood boiling hotter by the second. "Jesus fucking Christ, Kimberly, the least you could have done was get someone who could provide you with a halfway reasonable account of what happened!"

"Then tell me what happened!"

Tommy opened his mouth, preparing to do just what she had asked, but closed it just as quickly. He had explained himself to Jason to save their friendship, but Jason had not spied on him, either. Such an extreme breach of trust as the one Kimberly had committed left him seriously doubting whether or not this relationship was even worth fighting for.

"You know what, I'm not even going to explain myself to you," Tommy muttered, shaking his head. "I broke up with Kat because she didn't trust me to have you as a friend, but when you told me you didn't want me to go somewhere just because Kat would be there, I didn't get mad. You know why?" he continued, clenching his fists in an attempt to calm himself down. "Because I understood that you were still hurting after what Jeff did to you. But this goes beyond just reasonable doubt, Kim. For you to have me followed, to have my privacy violated and invaded like that, it's unacceptable."

"Nice speech, Tommy. What's your point?" Kimberly replied, as though it was the most boring thing she had ever heard.

She was obviously intoxicated, but Tommy could not see excuses, only actions. "My point is that I don't think I can be with someone who trusts me so little that they feel they have to have me followed, then hurl accusations at me before they even ask for my side of the story."

"So what are you saying?" said Kimberly, folding her arms across her chest. "That you want to break up?"

Tommy started to speak, but stopped himself short once more. "Yes," he murmured several seconds later, one word causing more pain to his heart than should have been possible for one human being to feel.

Kimberly's eyes went wide in disbelief, but Tommy did not wait to see her full reaction, mostly because he knew he could not bear to watch it. She stared at him as he disappeared into the hallway, her mind telling her to move while her legs refused to cooperate. Tears filled her eyes as her hands flew to her mouth, and with two staggered steps backwards she hit the wall, slumping to the floor in the fetal position.

"Oh my God," she muttered, to the ground upon which her tears now splattered rapidly. "What have I done?"


	5. Lost and Found

_**Title: Left at the Altar**_

**_Chapter 5 - Lost and Found_**

**_Original Posting Date: March 22, 2009  
_**

--

Dragging a black marker across the little white box in front of him, a visibly saddened Tommy stared at the calendar on the side of his refrigerator and nearly lost it right there. The black X, now the thirtieth to join the group, was a constant reminder of what he had given up and the awful, seemingly never-ending pain that he felt because of it.

It had been exactly thirty days since he had broken up with Kimberly, and a more painful period of time in his life he was hard pressed to remember. Not even when she had ended their high school relationship had Tommy felt worse than he did now. The pain in his heart, a feeling that he had expected would subside over time, had only gotten progressively worse with each X he placed upon the calendar.

He knew what it would take to make the pain go away, perhaps nothing more than a phone call, but he could not bring himself to do it, not after what Kimberly had done to him; his pride simply would not allow it. No matter how bad it got he could never go back; the way she had treated him by having him followed was just one of those things that Tommy could not ever see himself being able to forgive, regardless of how much it hurt to do so.

For the next thirty minutes he pitter-pattered around his house with an expression even sadder than the one he had worn yesterday morning, and the morning before that, and the morning before that. Each day was always worse than the day before, it seemed, leading Tommy to question whether things were ever going to get better at all, if the pain and loneliness in his heart would some day go away.

"I doubt it," Tommy muttered in disdain as he lazily searched his closet for something to wear to work.

He was doing everything possible to stay professional at school, but he had not been able to go without some very noticeable changes: his hair, for starters, had not been cut in over a month; his cheeks were rather stubbly; and he had ceased wearing dress shirts and ties, instead opting primarily for un-tucked polo shirts and jeans. The classroom was where it was the absolute worst, though.

Staying focused long enough to teach five classes each day was becoming an increasingly harder task to accomplish without drifting off into a lull, thinking about the woman whom, despite the fact that she had now twice broken his heart, he still loved with every fiber of his being, so much so that the mere thought of her face made his chest ache. He hated that he still loved her, hated the fact that he would probably never be able to truly get over her, but none of that mattered now. His cards had been dealt to him, and now he would have to play them as best he could.

Making it through class today was more of a chore than anything else, but somehow he had found a way to conquer day thirty. He drank coffee and energy drinks throughout the day to insure he was alert, but even then he had caught himself slipping away a few times. Still, at the end of the day, he had survived and that was all he cared about.

As Tommy climbed into his Jeep on this dreary Friday afternoon, the skies gray and threatening rain, he heard his phone ring and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was Jason. Kimberly had tried for three weeks straight to get a hold of him, but he had refused to answer any of her calls or emails; she had not tried again for nearly a week, seemingly having given up, but every call and new email made his stomach lurch, thinking that she was trying once more.

"You'd answer it if she did," he grumbled to himself, the most honest thing he had said in quite some time. The problem with pretending not to be in pain was that it generally lead to a lot of lies, and Tommy was no exception to this. He had been forced to lie more than a few times in recent memory, but the truth was that he _would_ answer if she tried again, simply for a brief lapse in the pain while he listened to her soothing voice, though he could not actually bring himself to pick up the phone and call her himself; once again, his pride would not allow it.

Flipping open his phone, he raised it to his ear and flipped it open without speaking, instead waiting for Jason. It took a handful of silent moments for anything to happen, but eventually Jason took charge and said something.

"Uh, hello? You there, bro?"

"I'm here," said Tommy, backing out of his parking space.

"Oh, okay, I must have missed the memo that said the new way to answer the phone is by not saying anything," Jason laughed, although Tommy did not.

"What's going on, Jase?" questioned Tommy dryly, feeling not even the slightest urge to make small talk at this point. All he wanted to do was get home and be alone, to wallow in his pity while everyone else went about their business without him. It was a sad truth, but nothing else seemed important anymore if he did not have Kimberly in his life to share it with.

"I'm picking you up in an hour," Jason replied, pausing as if waiting for Tommy to argue. When Tommy remained silent, however, Jason continued, "You there?"

"What are you picking me up for?" asked Tommy, allowing his eyes to flutter shut for just the briefest of moments as he navigated the streets of Reefside.

"We're gonna go have a couple beers and catch up."

"Fine," Tommy muttered, preparing to turn onto the street that would eventually lead to his house.

"Fine?" said Jason, hesitantly.

"Fine," Tommy repeated, just as blandly as the first time.

"No argument or anything?" said Jason incredulously.

"No argument," Tommy answered, mostly because he did not have the emotional strength to argue. It was as if he was standing next to some imaginary line, knowing that the smallest thing could push him over that line, in turn leading to a breakdown the likes of which this world had not yet seen. Tommy had become a master at the craft of hiding his emotions over the years, but he had never been particularly good at it when it came to Kimberly, and after thirty days of pretending like being without her was not killing him slowly, he knew that it was only a matter of time before that breakdown finally occurred.

Jason did not immediately reply, instead pausing briefly, not quite sure whether or not Tommy was being serious. "Umm, alright then, an hour it is," he announced, part of him still waiting for Tommy to throw up the fight he had prepared himself for prior to calling.

"Okay, later," said Tommy, closing his phone and tossing it onto the passenger seat

A couple miles away from his house, Tommy rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed loudly. Spending the evening with Jason was not what he had planned for tonight, but he was also somewhat grateful for the distraction, anything to keep his mind off that smiling face that so frequently and hauntingly invaded his scattered thoughts.

As soon as he had entered the house he dropped his briefcase inside the door and trudged across the carpeted floor to the living room, collapsing on the couch with his eyes closed, a position he remained in for nearly five minutes. Little by little he could feel his walls breaking, enough so that he was seriously starting to consider letting his pride go by just calling Kimberly. More than once he started to reach for his phone, only for that nagging voice in the back of his head to tell him to stop, reminding him of why he was in this position in the first place.

When he could take it no longer he shot forward in his seat, searching for the remote control to distract him, but it was nowhere in sight. Almost certain that he had left it on the coffee table, Tommy rolled his eyes and stood up, proceeding to walk the perimeter of the living room and come up empty.

"This is bullshit," he grumbled, spinning in a slow circle in the center of the room. Then he looked towards the ceiling and added, "Just one more thing for me to deal with, huh? Guess I don't have enough shit on my plate already."

Eventually his search lead him to the couch; the remote was not under any of the cushions, but upon dropping to his belly and reaching under the couch he felt it, right next to something surprisingly soft. He pulled them both items out and nearly lost it right then and there as he looked down at the pair of pink panties that he knew to be Kimberly's.

Then something strange happened; a smile crossed his lips. It was not big or bright, intentional or enthusiastic in any sense, in fact it was nothing short of faint at best, but it was still a smile and that was something that Tommy had scarcely done these past thirty days. He did not know why he was smiling, perhaps because he could so vividly recall how those panties had ended up under his couch; whatever it was, he wore a curious expression as he took the garment into his bedroom, not really sure what to think now.

Right outside his closet was a box with Kimberly's name on it, containing all of her personal artifacts, or at least the ones that he had been able to find scattered around the house since their breakup. He had thought about returning them, knowing that if nothing else it would be an excuse to see her again, but for reasons he could not explain he just could not bring himself to part with everything just yet.

The moment he dropped the panties into the box atop a few DVD's he was back to being sullen once again, his smile wiped away completely as he drifted back to the living room, flopping onto the couch with ESPN on the television screen. It was a short while later when Jason arrived, calling Tommy to let him know that he was outside waiting for him and to hurry his ass up.

Tommy's motions were lethargic as he made his way outside, to where Jason's pickup truck sat at the base of the driveway. He climbed into the vehicle without a word, starting things off much like their phone conversation earlier that afternoon, waiting for Jason to make the first move.

"You look like hell," said Jason, rather bluntly.

Turning to Jason, Tommy stared hard at his friend and said, "If this is how it's going to be all night, I'm just going to get out now and save us both the trouble."

"I'm just giving you a hard time, bro, relax. Sheesh," Jason replied, shaking his head as he pulled away from the house.

Tommy said nothing. In fact, in the hour it took to drive to Angel Grove, he hardly said anything at all. When Jason asked a question Tommy would answer, but those answers were as short as possible and never lead to any sort of real conversation. Truthfully, Tommy was not even sure why he had agreed to go with Jason in the first place. He knew that his company was likely to be less than stellar, and Jason did not deserve to be on the receiving end of that because he, Tommy, could neither let his pride go nor keep his emotions in check for very much longer.

As the evening was still fairly young, the bar and grill that Jason had chosen was relatively empty, just a few patrons scattered about the place as the pair made their way to a high-top table tucked away in the corner where they could speak freely without the risk of being overheard. Within a matter of moments a waitress had come to their table, and Jason ordered a pitcher of beer and an appetizer sampler, trying to make casual conversation with Tommy while they waited for their order.

Slowly but surely Tommy was starting to loosen up. He was by no means his normal self, but he was now answering questions with more than three word grunts, and occasionally bounced a question back to Jason as well. By the time they made it through their second pitcher Tommy was actually conversing, even laughing and joking when the opportunities presented themselves. They spoke of nothing important, and perhaps that was why it was so easy for Tommy to relax; they had been there over an hour and Kimberly had not once been mentioned, nor had she entered Tommy's thoughts again either, mostly thanks to Jason who was doing a superb job of keeping his old friend's mind distracted.

Even so, Jason had not just invited Tommy along so that they could play catch up. There were things they needed to discuss; important things, things he would not have dared brought up to the Tommy he had encountered a few hours earlier. Now, however, Tommy was considerably more relaxed, and as Jason took an extended drink from his glass he silently prepared to begin his interrogation.

Eyeing Tommy carefully from across the table, Jason set his glass down and said quite seriously, "So tell me something bro, when are you going to stop acting like a dumb ass kid and actually take one of Kim's phone calls?"

For a moment Tommy stared back at Jason as if he had not heard his friend correctly. Then he took a drink from his glass and let out an almost bitter laugh. "I should have known this was what you wanted to talk about all along. Well, congrats on accomplishing most of your plan, but I'm going to have to end it here. I'm not talking about Kim, and that's all there is to it."

"And here I thought you were actually a mature adult," Jason countered, earning a scoff and an eye roll from Tommy. "Face it, man, you're being a baby. You're running from your problems when they all would go away if you just manned up and faced them. Nothing is ever going to get better if you always pretend like nothing's bothering you."

Tommy opened his mouth to speak, but promptly shut it, pausing momentarily before muttering, "You wouldn't understand." Narrowing his eyes, he continued, "Kim had her chance, Jase; two of them, in fact. She broke my heart once and I let her back in, and then she broke it again just the same. It doesn't matter how I feel, because my happiness at this point is predicated on the fact that I love someone I can never be with."

Picking at the sampler platter, Jason took a bite of fried mozzarella and said, "Oh, you could be with her if you wanted to be. You just—"

"No, I can't be, Jase," Tommy interrupted, shaking his head. "Not after what she did to me."

"See, that's what I'm talking about, being immature," said Jason, flipping his half-eaten cheese stick onto his plate in disgust. "All you can see is that Kim did something wrong, completely ignoring the fact that we're all humans and make mistakes. Yes, what she did was wrong, very wrong and I'll give you that, but is it really worth punishing yourself over this much?"

"It's worth it not to get my heart broken again, yes," Tommy answered firmly, flagging down their waitress to order another pitcher of beer. Once she had gone, he continued, "You don't get it, Jase, and I don't expect you to, but—"

"Oh, don't give me that 'I don't get it' bullshit. I get it," said Jason, his patience wearing thinner by the moment. "I get that you're too proud to admit that you're acting like a child, too proud to admit that you and Kim both made mistakes that night. That's right, Tommy, I said it; not just Kim, _both _of you."

Finishing off his beer, Tommy set his glass aside and asked, "And just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe that you overreacted just a _teeny-tiny _bit to the whole thing," said Jason, with a chuckle. Seeing the confused look on Tommy's face, he added, "As soon as you realized that Kim had you followed you immediately went into emotional mode. You stopped thinking, and just said whatever you felt at the time. You didn't even consider why she did it in the first place."

"You're kidding me right now, right?" questioned Tommy, Jason shaking his head. "Oh, that's rich man. I know why she did it; she did it because Jeff fucked her head up, but that's not an excuse, bro, not even a little bit."

Jason sighed as their waitress returned with their beer, waiting until she had left once more before replying. "No, Tommy, it's not an excuse, but it is a reason, and if ever someone was going to do something like she did…I mean, you gotta admit she had a good reason for doing it. Have you even tried to consider what you would have done in her shoes?"

"I wouldn't have had her followed," said Tommy, through gritted teeth.

"Maybe not," said Jason, pouring himself a glass from the pitcher, "But I guarantee you wouldn't have taken it lightly. If Kim was going to be somewhere with some ex-boyfriend you thought still had feelings for her, how would you feel? Wouldn't you be concerned, if for no other reason than because of what that guy might try? Wouldn't you feel a bit over-protective? I mean, let's face facts here bro, when it comes to being over-protective there's no one better at it than you."

Tommy started to reply, but again found himself closing his mouth before even a single word had escaped his lips. After brooding over Jason's questions momentarily, Tommy finally said, "What's your point, Jase?"

"My point is that you guys are miserable without each other; not just you, but Kim as well," Jason replied, piquing Tommy's interest. "I saw her the other day, bro, and she's falling apart without you. She looked like she hadn't had a decent night's sleep in weeks, she had a bunch of bruises on her arms and legs that she said were from falling off the balance beam," he continued, causing Tommy to wince at the thought of Kimberly taking a fall similar to the one that had placed her in the hospital just before her departure for Florida. "I've known Kim almost all my life, and I can't remember a time where she's been this messed up for this long

"Why are you telling me this?" asked Tommy, fighting off the tears threatening to fall at any given moment.

"Because you're my friend, and I won't just sit back and watch while you let the best thing to ever happen to either one of you pass you both by," murmured Jason. "Whether you want to admit it or not is pretty much irrelevant, but you and Kim are meant to be together. Everyone else around you already knows it, Tommy, and the harder you try to fight it, the worse you're making it on yourself. That's all I really have to say on the matter."

"So you think I should give Kim _another_ chance, bro?" said Tommy incredulously. "How can I honestly be expected to do that when I don't even know if I can ever trust her again?"

Jason held up his hands and waved Tommy down. "I'm not telling you what you should do, Tommy, I'm just telling you what it looks like to an outsider looking in. What you do is up to you and you alone, all I can tell you is that I think you'd be making a big mistake not to at least listen to what she has to say."

Lowering his head and closing his eyes, Tommy rubbed his forehead gingerly and said in a murmur, "I won't reach out to her, Jase." Then, looking up at Jason, he continued, "But if she calls, I'll listen."

Smiling victoriously, Jason stood up and extracted his wallet, tossing some cash on the table before turning to Tommy. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" asked Tommy, hesitantly.

"To meet up with some of the others," Jason answered, turning for the exit before Tommy had time to argue, or for that matter do anything else except stand up and follow his friend towards the door.

It took less than fifteen minutes of driving for Tommy to realize that something was amiss. Jason was driving away from downtown Angel Grove where most of the bars and clubs were, instead heading towards suburbia in the outer limits of the city.

"Okay, so where are we really going?" said Tommy, as they neared the neighborhood where Billy and Trini had both grown up, in houses three doors apart from each other.

Jason looked at Tommy and grinned. "I already told you, bro, we're going to meet some of the others."

"Ten miles away from the nearest bar?" questioned Tommy, raising an eyebrow at Jason.

Nodding, Jason said, "We're going somewhere a little off the beaten path." Laughing, he continued, "Don't worry, Tommy, I promise I'm not going to try and abduct you or anything like that."

Tommy half-smiled and said, "Yeah, I'd like to see you try."

"Don't forget, bro," said Jason, pointing his thumb at his chest, "_I'm_ the one with the muscles and the power."

Rolling his eyes, Tommy laughed and started to reply, but he immediately fell silent when he realized that Jason was stopping his truck. Then his eyes went wide, for Tommy immediately recognized where they were. It was definitely _not_ a bar, nor was it where he wanted to be by any stretch of the imagination. Deep down, however, Tommy somehow knew this meant that the time had come for him to finally stop running from the demons that had haunted him nonstop for the last thirty days.

--

Kimberly's day had not started any better than Tommy's. In fact, it had started much the same; no better or worse, though in a much different location of course. Seated in the leather, high-backed chair in her office, at seven a.m. in the empty gymnastics school she owned and operated, Kimberly stared at the desktop calendar in front of her with misty eyes. It was one of those calendars with different quotes and fortunes for each day of the year, and Kimberly had just torn today's page away and silently read its contents.

The authorless quote read, _"Missing someone gets easier every day, because even though you are one day further from the last time you saw them, you are now one day closer to the next time you will," _while the fortune very simply stated that, _"Today is a good day to make amends."_

Kimberly read the words over and over, as if doing so would somehow change the fact that neither of those proclamations was anything she could accomplish. Missing Tommy was not getting any easier, because the simple truth was that she severely doubted if she would ever see him again. Making amends was also downright impossible, seeing as how Tommy had refused to answer any of her calls or emails for three weeks straight. Hell, she had even driven to his home in Reefside a few times, but he was either never home or just chose not to answer the door for her.

She could practically feel the pieces of her already shattered heart breaking even more with each passing day she went without seeing Tommy's face or hearing his voice. Never in her life could Kimberly recall a time where she had ever let someone else dictate her own happiness for any significant length of time, not even Jeff and the ugly demise of their relationship, but a single smile she had not expressed since the night she had made what she knew for certain to be the biggest mistake of her entire life.

How she was even still standing was a mystery in and of itself. She had not slept for more than a few hours in a row without waking since the night Tommy had ended their relationship, and it was showing more than she was willing to admit, both in her performance at work as well as her physical appearance.

Her eyes were almost always red with darkened circles underneath, she had seemingly forgotten how to stand straight and with her head up, and many a bruise spotted her body from times she had lost concentration while doing a demonstration for one of her classes. Overall, life was absolute shit in the truest sense of the word and there was not a single thing she could do to change that fact.

Spending three weeks chasing Tommy like a puppy with its tail between its legs had left her nearly as depleted as the breakup itself. It pained her heart to know that, even though she had done something truly awful, Tommy steadfastly refused to even listen to what she had to say. Then again, why should he have?

She would have been lying to herself if she said that she had not seen this one coming from a mile away. For months she had told herself that she could not be trusted with Tommy's heart, but he had offered it once more and she had accepted it without hesitation, only to turn around and break it for the second time at the first opportunity possible.

Now, as a result, the vivacious Kimberly that had always been so happy and full of life had ceased to exist entirely. Getting through each day was a chore, almost not even worth doing now that she did not have Tommy to share her life with. Truth be told, things had fallen apart so much that the only reason she still had a job was because there was no one to fire her; that and the fact that she had hired a talented staff who luckily were able to keep things running fairly smoothly in her mental absence.

Trudging through today like she had done every other day for the past thirty, Kimberly left her school at five o'clock that evening, climbing into her car while giving silent thanks that she had not endured yet another injury. She was just about to start the car when a sudden noise made her body stop, as well as her heart, in a position similar to those she had found herself in every time her phone had rang since the breakup.

Though she knew in her heart that it never would be, and this time was of course no different, part of her could not help but hope that it was Tommy calling her. Instead, this time it was a number she did not recognize, and so she did not answer it, dropping her phone back into her purse before starting her car up, but just as she was about to back out of her parking space another noise made her stop, this one signaling that the caller had left a voicemail.

She listened to the message with a confused expression, the only thing clear to her being that she had no idea what to think of what she had just heard. Somehow though, for reasons that she could not readily explain she ended up calling back, and it was because of that that she found herself sitting at T.G.I. Friday's an hour and a half later, sharing a table and drinks with the very last person that she had ever expected to call, even more so than Tommy.

After a bit of casual conversation, Katherine took a drink from her apple martini and softly asked, "So, how are you feeling?" Staring down at her margarita, Kimberly shook her head as if to say that she did not want to talk about it. Katherine, however, would not be deterred so easily, her voice remaining soft as she continued, "It's okay, Kimberly, I know how you feel. You don't have to pretend that it doesn't hurt like hell."

"What do you want me to say, Kat," Kimberly muttered, still gazing into the icy green depths of her half-filled glass, "that I miss him so much I have to remind myself not to cry every five minutes? I'm falling apart here, Kat. I've never felt this much pain before in my life…I don't know how to deal with all of this."

Katherine smiled, surprisingly Kimberly by reaching out and taking her hand. "What if I told you that you don't have to?"

If nothing else, Kimberly had at least taken the bait and looked up at Katherine with wide eyes as she hesitantly asked, "W-what do you mean?"

"Getting Tommy back of course. I mean, if you still want to and everything," Katherine replied, watching as Kimberly's presence deflated visibly.

Pulling her hand away, Kimberly looked down once more and said, "There is nothing in the world I would love more than to get Tommy back, but please, don't patronize me. I already know I screwed up, Tommy won't even answer the phone when I call, and I really don't need this to remind me of it."

"I'm not trying to make it worse, Kimberly," said Katherine, absolutely serious, "I'm trying to make it better. I know you think you know Tommy, but you haven't been around him nearly as much as I have. Trust me when I say that he's hurting just as badly as you are. He just…needs to be reminded of what it feels like to _not_ to hurt."

Kimberly scoffed and looked up at Katherine with the faintest hint of tears in her eyes as she questioned, "And just how do I go about doing that when he won't even do so much as reply to an email? I've tried everything, Kat, I've exhausted all my options and now I just have to figure out a way to deal with the fact that Tommy and I are done for good."

"Well then you're not half the woman I thought you were," said Katherine firmly, ignoring the hurt expression Kimberly now wore as a result.

"You wouldn't understand," Kimberly murmured, looking away absently.

"Oh, don't give me that crap, Kimberly," Katherine replied, shaking her head. "Now, you listen to me and you listen good," she continued, snapping Kimberly to attention. "I spent seven years of my life, eight if you count high school, loving a man who I knew would never love me the same way I loved him. Do you know why he couldn't love me the way I loved him, Kim?"

Kimberly was forced to swallow the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat before answering Katherine's question. "Because he loved me," she whispered, recalling what Tommy had said to her the night of her failed wedding, embarrassed to admit that she had unknowingly sabotaged Katherine's relationship with Tommy before it had even started. "Because he never stopped loving me."

"That's right," said Katherine, leaning back in her seat as she folded her arms across her chest. "Tommy loved you then just as much as he does now. He always has and he always will. Do you have any idea what it feels like to make love for the first time and hear the man you're with slip up and call you by his ex-girlfriend's name?"

Kimberly gasped as her hand flew to her open mouth. "He did that?" she breathed, Katherine nodding. For what seemed like hours Kimberly stared back at Katherine in disbelief, trying to understand what she had been told, until she was finally able to mutter, "W-why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want you to understand what I went through," Katherine answered, smiling faintly, "Because understanding that is part of understanding why I refuse to just sit back and watch the best thing that ever happened to either one of you fall apart when there's no reason for it to ever get that far. I could hate you and no one would fault me for it, but I don't, and do you know why that is, Kimberly?"

Shaking her head, Kimberly was only able to manage a meek, "No."

"Because you make Tommy happy, happier than I or anyone else could ever make him. After eight years of going to hell and back with him, then for me turn around and date his best friend…he could hate me just the same as I could hate you, but he doesn't, and it's because he knows Jason makes me happy. I can't live with myself, Kim, knowing that I'm so happy when Tommy deserves it far more than I do. You can't give up on him, not now; I won't let you."

For the first time in nearly a decade Katherine and Kimberly's eyes met in an exchange that expressed more than just jealousy over the fact that they had shared the same man. There was a clear sense of understanding in their respective gazes, both of them struggling not to break down and cry right there in the bar.

A sniffling Kimberly rubbed her nose on the back of her sweatshirt sleeve, let out a deep sigh, and then said, "So, uh, what's this master plan of yours to get Tommy back? I mean, you do have a plan, right? Because like I said before, I'm all out of ideas here."

Katherine chuckled. "Oh, there's a plan, alright," she answered, rising to her feet as she simultaneously reached into her purse for her wallet. "Let's just say, it'll all make sense when we get there and leave it at that."

"_There?_" Kimberly questioned, Katherine smiling and nodding. "Where is _there_, exactly?"

"_There_," Katherine repeated, refusing to say any more as she dropped some money on the table and then motioned for Kimberly to follow.

For the first fifteen minutes that they speeded along the freeway in Katherine's black Toyota 4Runner Kimberly tried to further interrogate her, but the second Pink Ranger had proved early on that her lips were firmly sealed, and that any more questioning on Kimberly's part would be nothing more than a waste of breath. Slightly irritated that she was being kept in the dark, Kimberly rode in silence for the remaining majority of their drive, sitting with her arms folded across her chest until Katherine suddenly merged off the freeway.

"What could possibly be here?" she murmured softly, more to herself than Katherine, who just looked at Kimberly and smiled.

They drove another ten minutes or so, Kimberly's heart racing more and more as she started to realize where they were going. Was Tommy going to be there, and if he was did he know that she was coming? So many thoughts raced through her head that when they reached their destination she simply sat there, unable to form any sense of coherency in her mind.

For the longest time she just stared out the window, her eyes focused on the grassy hill that led down to the beaches of Angel Grove Lake, silently wondering why Katherine had chosen this of all places. It was not until Katherine reached out and touched her arm, however, that Kimberly expressed her question verbally.

"My partner in crime thought it would be a good place to start again," said Katherine, grinning from ear to ear.

"Partner in crime?" questioned Kimberly, raising her eyebrows curiously.

Katherine nodded. "Yep," she replied, turning to look out the front window and smiling brightly when she noticed a shadowy figure moving up the hill towards them. "Ah, here he comes now."

Kimberly followed Katherine's gaze with narrowed eyes, staring at the figure until it was close enough for her to recognize that it was Jason who was approaching. Even an emotionally broken Kimberly could not help but smile at her surrogate brother, looking up at him with a thankful expression as he opened her door for her.

"He's down on the beach and doesn't know you're here, thinks we're waiting for some of the guys to get here for a drunken bonfire and that I came up here to make a phone call," said Jason, taking Kimberly's hand and helping her out of the car. Then, without warning, he slid past her and into the seat she had just been occupying, closing the door before she could say anything. Rolling down the window, Jason smiled and added, "The door is unlocked and the keys are in the center console under my CD case. I expect a text message later telling me whose house to pick it up at."

Kimberly turned to look at where Jason was pointing, saw his truck and nearly jumped out of her shoes when the tires of Katherine's SUV squealed loudly, a black bullet shooting backwards and whirling around before jetting out of sight entirely. She stood there for a few uncertain moments, questioning whether or not this was the right thing to do, then took a deep breath and turned for the beach.

She froze at the top of the hill when she saw him sitting there in the sand, his arms resting on his knees as he stared out on the breaking water. The skies had grown even drearier over the course of the day, occasionally sprinkling, though the weather had remained relatively calm in the sense that the skies were only threatening to open up instead of having already done so.

Although she was not a very religious person, Kimberly closed her eyes and said a silent prayer, something that she had not done since she was a small girl. Then she opened her eyes and with one more deep breath took a step towards Tommy; and then another, and another, quietly approaching his side, seemingly going unnoticed until she had sat herself down in the sand right next to him.

"I had a feeling Jason was going to do something like this," Tommy murmured, his eyes still focused on the water. "I'm curious to know who convinced you to come though, seeing as how Aisha and Trini want me dead and all that."

"Oh, so we're talking now?" said Kimberly, a hint of unavoidable bitterness in her voice.

"I asked you a question, didn't I?" Tommy countered, just as tightly, steadfastly refusing to look her way.

Staring at the side of Tommy's head, Kimberly shook her head and muttered, "Fine, I'll answer your question if you answer one of mine afterwards."

"Fine," said Tommy, through gritted teeth, unwilling to admit that he already felt exponentially better than he had in a month just by her being there next to him.

"Katherine," Kimberly answered.

Tommy's eyes went wide. "Seriously?" he questioned.

Kimberly nodded. "My turn," she replied, wiggling her toes in the sand. "Why wouldn't you answer any of my calls or emails?"

Scoffing, Tommy said, "I would have thought that was obvious."

"If it was that obvious I wouldn't have asked it," said Kimberly, simultaneously rolling her eyes. "Now, I answered your question so you answer mine. Why did you ignore me for so long?"

Tommy did not immediately answer, instead staring down at the sand as he attempted to gather his thoughts into something coherent. With a great sigh, he nodded once and gave Kimberly the answer she was looking for.

"I would have done anything for you, Kim, moved heaven and earth if I thought it would make you happy. When you came spiraling back into my life, I wasn't looking for a relationship, but it happened and I wasn't afraid, even though I easily could have been. I wasn't worried that you would move away and find some other guy, or fear coming home to a Dear John letter sitting in my mailbox. I was so convinced that things would be different this time around, but they weren't…after what happened that night, I realized that nothing I could do would ever be good enough to not end up heartbroken. For the first time since I was fifteen years old I was scared of you, but not because I was the new kid and you were the popular and pretty girl, I was scared because I couldn't understand—and still can't for that matter—what I did to deserve such distrust when I didn't even do anything wrong in the first place. "

"Do you want to know what you did wrong?" asked Kimberly softly.

Tommy chuckled half-heartedly. "Yes, please," he answered, throwing his hands up exasperatedly, "Enlighten me."

"Nothing," Kimberly murmured, Tommy's eyes slowly turning to meet hers. "You did nothing wrong except be everything I needed and wanted in a man. You didn't judge me for the past, or make me feel guilty. You were there for me in ways that for the longest time I had only dreamed about. It's not a huge secret that I've had shit luck with guys, but the simple fact of the matter is that I had everything I'd ever wanted and it was me who fucked it all up…again."

"Why?" croaked Tommy, his emotions suddenly threatening to get the better of him.

Kimberly sighed and methodically rose to her feet, holding herself closely as she took a few steps towards the beach, then turning around to face Tommy. "I wasn't ready, Tommy; I thought I was, but I wasn't. I thought I was over Jeff, that what happened wasn't going to mess with my head anymore, but I was wrong. I know it's no excuse, but when you left to go to Ashley's thing all I could think was that it was about to happen all over again. I saw red and I panicked, and I can't tell you enough how regretful and truly sorry I am for it. You deserved so much better than that."

Squeezing his eyes shut tightly, Tommy tried as hard as he could not to let slip what was on the tip of his tongue, but the harder he tried the stronger the urge to speak became until finally he could take it no longer. "I understand," he admitted, raising his eyes to Kimberly. "I don't agree with what you did, but I understand why you did it."

Smiling, Kimberly approached Tommy and extended her hands to him. Tommy took them without question or hesitation, allowing Kimberly to help him onto his feet. Standing just inches apart, Kimberly relinquished her hold on his hands as she looked up at him and murmured, "Truth or dare, Tommy?"

Tommy shook his head. "I'm not playing games, Kim."

"This isn't a game," Kimberly replied firmly. "Truth or dare?"

Sighing, Tommy suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and said, "Truth."

"Did you really say my name when you and Kat did it for the first time?"

Tommy's eyes went wide in shock. "She told you about that?" he asked, his mouth agape as Kimberly grinned and nodded. Staring up at the sky, Tommy ran his hand through his hair and surprised both he and Kimberly by letting out a hearty laugh. "Aww, man, that is so embarrassing. I can't believe she actually told you. I don't even think she ever told Tanya about that. God, she must have been pretty desperate to pull that card."

"Let's just say she wasn't having much luck getting through to me," said Kimberly.

"And that helped?" Tommy replied, raising an eyebrow.

Chuckling, Kimberly nodded and then started to walk towards the water. Instinctively knowing that Tommy was following, she looked back and said, "It's your turn."

Tommy approached her side, falling into step as he replied, "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," Kimberly answered, smiling up at him.

On the verge of presenting his question, Tommy stopped short when the slightest glimmer from the moon peeked through the dark clouds, casting its dim light across her face. For the first time he saw what Jason had been talking about earlier; Kimberly was physically a shell of her former self, though she seemed to be far more relaxed than he had expected. Did she feel the same way he did, like the weight of the world had been lifted from their shoulders just by being in each other's company?

He had been planning on making a joke, something similar to what Kimberly had said, but the game had ceased being fun as soon as he had set his sights on the dark circles underneath her eyes. Now, joking was no longer an option, so he paused briefly to gather his thoughts before delivering the only question he could think of.

"Does it hurt you the same way that it hurts me?"

At that moment Kimberly's legs lost the ability to progress forwardly. It took Tommy a few moments to realize that Kimberly was no longer at his side, and by the time he had turned back around to face her there was at least ten feet between them. With tears in her eyes, Kimberly looked at Tommy and whispered, "More than you'll ever know."

"I'm tired of hurting, Kim," Tommy admitted, swallowing the oversized lump that had just appeared in his throat.

"Me too," Kimberly murmured.

Tommy and Kimberly locked eyes and stayed like that for nearly a minute, almost sizing one another up, waiting for the other person to make the first move. If not for thr clouds choosing this moment to open and rain down on them, Tommy was certain that he would have been able to hear his heart thumping violently against his chest.

Even through the rain their eyes never wavered, as though they had not even noticed the sudden influx of water attacking them from above. Then something happened; Tommy smiled, and left Kimberly smiling as a result. Words need not be said, for their eyes expressed more than simple speech could ever do, and suddenly they were quickly pacing towards each other.

As soon as Tommy was close enough he took hold of Kimberly's face and pulled her in, kissing her with every ounce of passion his body was capable of producing. Kimberly attached her lips firmly to Tommy's, clinging to his shirt with everything she had, letting out a gleeful squeal when he suddenly lifted her up, her legs going around his waist as she threw her head back and brushed some hair away before continuing their kiss.

It was easily the most wonderful thing either one of them had ever experienced, and when it ended they were both breathless, staring into each other's eyes in a silent understanding. The past was the past, it was over and done with and there was no need to talk about it ever again, because Tommy and Kimberly both knew that it would never happen again.

"I love you, Kimberly Hart," Tommy whispered.

Kimberly smiled and said, "I love you too, Tommy," and then kissed him once more, over and over again as she felt all the pain of the last thirty days leave her body entirely. Only when it felt like her lips would fall off if she kissed him again did she pull away, biting down on her lip, pressing her forehead against his as she murmured, "I can't believe this is happening. I…I thought it was over."

"It was never over, Beautiful," Tommy whispered, stroking her back up and down. "And it will never be over, either. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't make myself stop loving you. I don't want to ever go another day without you by my side, because I know what that feels like and I hate it."

"You're not the only one, Tommy," said Kimberly, pressing a single kiss to his lips.

"Marry me, Kim," Tommy murmured, not realizing what he was saying until it had already flown out of his mouth.

Staring down at him, Kimberly narrowed her eyes and asked, "Are you serious?"

Tommy swallowed hard and nodded, unable to lie to her now that he had already said it. "If this last month has taught me anything it's that my life just wasn't the same without you in it. I've had people come and go all my life, but I've never felt worse than when we weren't together. I love you, Kim, more than I've ever loved anyone. I know this is out of nowhere, that I don't have a ring and all that stuff, but I've never been more serious about anything. I want you to marry me."

With tears in her eyes, Kimberly closed them and shook her head vigorously. "This isn't real," she whispered, holding onto Tommy even tighter, as though relinquishing her hold would cause her to drift away from this dream state and back to reality.

"It is real, Beautiful," Tommy replied, kissing her warmly. "Will you marry me?"

Biting down hard on her lip, Kimberly squeezed her eyes shut once more, only this time she nodded. "Yes," she whispered, looking at Tommy with tear-stained eyes. "Yes, yes, yes, a million times over, yes!"

From his vantage point at the top of the world, Tommy looked up at the only thing higher than him and smiled brightly as he brought his lips to Kimberly's. Once again, after thirty days of pain and heart ache, all was right with the world.

--


	6. Final Resolution

_**Title: Left at the Altar**_

_**Chapter 6 - Final Resolution**_

_**A/N: This is the last chapter of this story. I've had a blast working on this, a story that never would have happened if not for jps1926 and her awesome idea, so kudos to her in a major way.**_

_**Original Posting Date: March 29, 2009**_

--

Brandishing a hand truck stacked high with boxes, Tommy carefully wheeled them out of Kimberly's house and down the winding path that led from her front porch to her driveway. As he approached the U-Haul van parked in the drive he saw Kimberly leaning against the vehicle, a For Sale sign embedded in the lawn behind her, and gave her a bright smile. Even in sweats and a sweatshirt he could not help but find her to be the most beautiful woman on the planet.

"I'm pretty sure that this is the last of it," said Tommy, proceeding to start his transfer of the boxes from the hand truck into the back of the van. "You might want to double check, though," he added, Kimberly nodding as she started towards the house. "Or, you know, help me load up _these_ boxes and everything."

Kimberly grinned. "No, that's okay," she replied, shooting Tommy a wink. "You look like you've got it all under control; and besides, I would probably just get in your way."

Tommy just rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he continued loading the boxes into the van. Though he had done the majority of the heavy lifting during the move, he was not about to complain, mostly because he and Kimberly had gone nearly a full month debating who was going to move where now that they were engaged; she into Tommy's house, or he into hers. In the end, he had used the vast amount of top secret Ranger information stored in his basement to convince her that moving into her house was going to be a much more difficult task than if she was to move into his.

Exactly forty-four days into their spur of the moment engagement, Tommy could honestly say, without a doubt, that he had never been happier than he was right now. Everything that he had endured over the years—the pain and the misery and the heartbreak—had all become worth it the very second that she had said yes to his lakeside proposal.

"Yeah, you were right. That's everything," said Kimberly, a few minutes later as she exited the house and approached Tommy, who had just finished with the boxes and was now in the process of hoisting the hand truck into the van.

Tommy nodded, but did not say anything until he had closed and locked the garage-style. Once he was finished he: turned to Kimberly; took one of her hands; and gently pulled her in against his chest. "C'mon," he murmured, embracing her warmly, rubbing up and down her back ever so softly. "Let's go home."

Smiling, Kimberly nuzzled the side of her face against his chest and quietly replied, "Yeah, let's do that."

"Jason sent me a text when you were inside," said Tommy, slackening his hold on her. "They were almost forty-five minutes ahead of us, but Rocky made them stop to get lunch—"

"Which, knowing Rocky, means they won't be to Reefside for at least another hour," said Kimberly, Tommy nodding as they shared a knowing laugh, followed by Kimberly shaking her head as she continued, "How is it that a person could have to stop halfway through a ninety minute drive to get lunch? I mean, I know it's Rocky and everything, but—"

"That's exactly it," Tommy interrupted, tilting her chin up slightly. "It's Rocky," he added, placing a single kiss to her lips, just enough contact to tide him over until they were together again in the van. "Now let's get out of here, or we're gonna be the ones that are late."

Kimberly just smiled and turned for the passenger side of the van, but not before giving Tommy a kiss of her own. Then, in less than two minutes time they were off, driving hand-in-hand from the house as she bad it farewell with a wave, a whispered goodbye, and a smile that was only slightly sad. After the years of work, not to mention money, that she had put into it she thought that she would miss her home far more than this, but most of the disappointment was masked, banished and replaced by joy that this move was just one of many steps on the road that was her new life with Tommy.

--

"Let's go, let's go!" yelled Tommy, fiddling with the cuffs of his dark green dress shirt as he bustled about the house in search of his various personal artifacts on this Friday evening a few weeks later. He found his keys on the kitchen counter and quickly stuffed them into his pocket, then adjusted the hem of the black V-neck sweater he wore over his dress shirt as he added, "I'm going to be old enough to need Viagra if you take any longer, Kim!"

"If you keep rushing me like that you won't have any need for Viagra!" Kimberly fired back from the bedroom, walking out moments later in search of her fiancée with an irritated look on her face. "I swear, Tommy, some times it's like you have the patience of a seven year-old with freaking A.D.D. or something!"

Tommy rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't be impatient if it didn't take you two hours to get—oh!" he exclaimed, his eyes lighting up like a small child on Christmas morning as he set his sights on Kimberly, looking as gorgeous as ever in a black strapless cocktail dress ending just above her knees. "How is it you always do that?"

"Do what?" asked Kimberly, still visibly frustrated at Tommy's impatience as she stood with her arms folded across her chest.

"Take two hours to get dressed and kill any irritation I'm feeling by looking so damn beautiful," Tommy answered, grinning as he reached out for Kimberly and pulled her in close to him, kissing ever so softly.

When the kiss broke, a blushing Kimberly replied, "Probably the same way you yell at me for thirty minutes and then kill any irritation _I'm_ feeling by saying something like that."

Tommy chuckled and said, "God, Kim, that dress almost makes me want to say 'screw it' to going out tonight, you know that?"

"That good, huh?" said Kimberly, freeing herself to do a little twirl as Tommy nodded approvingly. "Well I'm glad you like it so much, but I didn't spend two hours getting dressed to stay home and do the hanky-panky. This dress requires at least twice the amount of time spent out that it took to get ready."

"Then we should probably get going if you plan on staying out for four hours. It's already eight o' clock," said Tommy, walking away to retrieve his cell phone from the coffee table in the living room. Upon returning to Kimberly, he stopped just inches in front of her and quietly asked, "Are you ready?"

Smiling, Kimberly nodded and followed Tommy towards the front door. Tommy paused at the coat rack to the side of the door, grabbing a black shawl which he then offered to Kimberly. Slowly turning around, she looked back at him with a smile as he started to place the garment around her shoulders, murmuring, "You just won't let chivalry die, will you?"

"Can't," Tommy whispered, brushing some hair back to kiss the nape of her neck. "Mom and Dad would kill me," he added, in between his kisses and the soft moans that he was eliciting from Kimberly as a result of them.

"Mmm…so would I," whispered Kimberly, freeing herself for she knew that they would never leave if she let him continue like that for very much longer. "Save it for later, 'k stud?" she said with a wink, standing on her tiptoes to give him a fleeting kiss.

Tommy laughed. "Alright, alright, let's go," he replied, needling her ribs playfully, causing her to shriek hysterically as she ran for safe haven outside as fast as she could in high heels. Tommy just shook his head and continued laughing as he walked after her, locking the door behind himself before proceeding to his Jeep where Kimberly was already waiting inside.

"You're an ass, you know that?" said Kimberly, grinning despite herself as Tommy climbed into the driver's seat.

"Yeah, and you didn't wait for me to open your door, so there," Tommy replied, sticking his tongue out at her.

Giggling, Kimberly shook her head and said, "Just shut up and drive, Tommy."

Feigning hurt, Tommy tore his eyes from Kimberly and refused to look at her while backing out of the driveway, simultaneously muttering in a very whiny, mocking voice, "Just shut up and drive, Tommy. Just shut up and drive because that's all you're good for. That and cooking a decent meal since I am completely incapable of making anything edible that doesn't involve boxes, a microwave, or both."

"Hey, I can make the best peanut butter and jelly you've ever tasted, and that doesn't require a box or a microwave, thank you very much!" Kimberly replied matter-of-factly, as they took off down the street for a destination he had not yet disclosed to her. Tommy's head snapped to look at her with an expression that called bullshit, their eyes locking for a few silent moments before both suddenly burst out laughing. "Okay, okay, fine," she continued, waving her hands in defeat, "I can't cook to save my life, but you can and that's all that matters. Besides, I'm a very progressive woman, Tommy. One minute it's just cooking dinner and then the next I'm barefoot, pregnant, doing housework, and baking cookies all day!"

It continued like that for the better part of the hour long drive down one of Southern California's coastal highways, Tommy and Kimberly bantering back and forth, spending a good majority of their time in the car laughing like two kids without a single care in the world. Unbeknownst to Kimberly, they were only a few minutes away from their destination when she turned to Tommy and said, "So you still haven't told me where we're going."

"And I'm still not going to either," said Tommy, smiling and winking at her. "If we've made it this far without me saying anything, I think it's safe to assume that it's going to stay like that the rest of the way. Just relax and enjoy the rest of the drive; we're almost there."

Content to do exactly that, Kimberly sat back and smiled brightly as the cool ocean breeze brushed across her face. They were so close to the sea she could the smell the salt, almost taste it even, one of those sensations she had fallen in love with at a very young age. The ocean had always been particularly fascinating to her, the way it was very much its own world, so entirely different and yet so strikingly similar to its much drier counterpart. Now, whenever she visited the ocean she was instantly taken back to her childhood memories of long afternoons spent building sand castles while daydreaming about the creatures in the water and what it would be like to swim alongside them.

They pulled off the freeway a few minutes later, driving down an old road so far out of the way that it literally ran alongside the beach itself, separated from the water's edge by only a row of trees and a mere fifty or so feet of sand. Aside from the Jeep's headlights, the severe lack of illumination on the road had Kimberly feeling quite confused, and if she was honest with herself, a bit scared as well. She trusted Tommy completely, of course, but she could not seem to shake the feeling that this road was the start of a bad horror movie just waiting to happen.

Then the trees suddenly ended for a few feet, creating a space just wide enough for a vehicle to fit through, and Tommy made a hard turn right, driving right onto the beach and stopping just short of the water's edge. Tommy hastened to turn off his headlights, but before things went completely dark Kimberly was able to catch sight of a small motor boat bobbing in the water.

"The drive was just part of the journey, I see," said Kimberly, smiling brightly.

Tommy looked at her and nodded before turning in his seat and hopping out onto the beach. Kimberly barely had time to open her door before he had appeared at her side, offering her his hand which she took with a gracious smile.

"That's for not letting me open the door for you when we left," said Tommy, winking as he helped her out of the Jeep.

Kimberly just laughed as their hands dropped, fingers interlocking as Tommy led them towards the boat. "So who does the boat belong to?" asked Kimberly.

"Father of a friend," Tommy answered cryptically, but when Kimberly gave him a glare he decided that he could at least spare her one small detail. "It's Alan Collin's, Wes's dad. Only a few people even know about this place."

"Well you're just full of connections, aren't you?" Kimberly replied, she and Tommy sharing a laugh as they reached the boat.

"Alright, easy does it," said Tommy, carefully helping her inside. Once she was seated safely in the boat, he took off his shoes and socks and handed them off to her, then rolled up his pants to just above his knees and started pushing the boat further into the water. When he was knee-deep in the salty water he came alongside of the boat and attempted to throw himself in, grimacing after his hip hit the edge, causing him to spill inside and land hard on his butt, clearly to Kimberly's delight and amusement.

Laughing heartily, Kimberly clapped and said, "Encore, Tommy, encore! A move so graceful even Bulk and Skull would be proud!"

Tommy rolled his eyes, pushing himself onto his feet and muttering something intentionally incoherent as he proceeded to the motor at the back of the boat. After a few tugs on the pull-string he was able to bring the engine to life with a tremendous roar. He turned back and looked at Kimberly, wearing an all-too-proud expression as he headed to the controls in front.

"Hang on!" he yelled to her over the rumbling engine.

"What?" Kimberly shouted, unable to hear him. Unfortunately, Tommy was already thrusting the throttle into gear, the boat springing forward with a great jerk that threw Kimberly out of her seat and onto her back.

Craning his neck, Tommy looked down at her and winked. "I told you to hang on, Kim."

With a look that said she had every intention of violently murdering him as soon as they had reached dry land, Kimberly crawled back to her seat and did not say a word for the rest of the ride. By the time she noticed that they were approaching a small island, though, her frustration had died significantly.

"Is that a house?" questioned Kimberly, pointing towards the island with a confused yet intrigued expression. Tommy just nodded, forcing her to continue by asking, "Is that Wes's dad's as well?"

Again, Tommy nodded, but this time also said, "Yeah, this is where we came to celebrate after the moon mission. It took damn near two hours to shuttle all twenty of us back and forth in this tiny ass boat, but _damn!,_ the party was so worth it."

Kimberly furrowed her brow as Tommy killed the engine, allowing the boat to slowly drift in its final approach to the twenty-thousand square-foot private island and the house that occupied half that space. "Twenty?" she asked, visibly curious. "I thought there were only ten of you."

"There were, but Aurico obviously didn't come, so there were only nine Reds, but most of us had Ranger girlfriends that came and a few other Rangers tagged along as well," said Tommy.

With an Oh-I-Get-It expression Kimberly nodded, but also appeared slightly disappointed as she replied, "I wish I could have been there. I mean, I see Kat and she has all these great friendships with Ranger girls from all these different teams, and I don't even _know_ who any of them are. I'm the original Pink Ranger, but I couldn't pick out any other Pink in a lineup except for Kat."

Tommy chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck as they reached the water's edge. "If you really want to meet some of the girls I'm sure I could introduce you. Most of them are just as passionate about being Rangers as the guys, and I bet that they would all love to meet the first Pink Ranger."

Kimberly grinned. "You really think so?" she asked, taking Tommy's helping hand and rising to her feet.

"Yeah, I do," he answered, leading her to the edge of the boat before hopping back into the water. He held out his arms and motioned for her to come closer; once she was with in reach, Tommy hoisted her off her feet and carried her bridal-style until they had reached the sand.

"What are we doing here, Tommy?" Kimberly asked as he set her down, watching him wade back into the water to retrieve his shoes and socks.

With footwear in hand, Tommy padded back towards her and answered, "Spending a romantic weekend away from the real world."

Back on dry land he ignored the confused look on Kimberly's face while he approached her, using one arm to sweep her against his chest as he haphazardly disposed of his socks and shoes in the sand behind her. Before she could say anything he was kissing her passionately, and for the briefest of moments Kimberly did not know what was happening, but then suddenly it all became very clear and she was kissing him back just as intensely, their lips clashing hot as he led them towards the house.

Only when the need to breathe became overwhelming did she tear her lips away, breathing heavily as she murmured, "I didn't pack any clothes."

"Neither did I," Tommy whispered, winking at her as they stopped at the front door, using his free hand to retrieve his key ring from his pants pocket. "Let's just say that everything we need for the weekend is here and leave it at that."

"I take it that doesn't include a wardrobe?" Kimberly questioned, raising her brow as Tommy reached behind her to unlock the door.

"Robes, maybe; wardrobe, no," he replied, pushing the door—and themselves—inside the house. He flipped the lights on and released his hold on Kimberly, allowing her to step back and take a good look at where they would be spending the rest of their weekend. "Have a look around," he continued, drifting off down a long stretch of shiny hardwood floor. "I have something to take care of in the kitchen."

Kimberly said nothing, barely able to nod as she looked around at the foyer with her mouth agape in disbelief. It was easily the most gorgeous house she had ever seen, and she had decided that after only seeing the entrance room with its maroon and gold walls, gilded mirrors, and many handsome paintings.

She wandered along aimlessly for quite some time, losing track of it entirely in just a matter of a few minutes. Every kind of room she could imagine was in this house: there was an entire sports wing with an indoor regulation sized basketball court and Olympic sized swimming pool, three-lane bowling alley, and a billiard room; ten bedrooms, each with their own bathroom and designed in various color schemes, each more beautiful than the one before it; there was even a home theatre only, instead of the rows of standard uncomfortable chairs, the progressive incline to the top of the room was occupied by leather recliners and couches.

By the time she had made it to the kitchen she had only seen half of the house and was so in awe of it that she failed to notice Tommy standing behind her. Luckily, he had seen her and was able to take hold of her around the waist just before she had stumbled into him. "Gotta watch where you're going there," he murmured into her ear, releasing her and smiling as she turned around to face him.

"This place is amazing," she breathed, Tommy laughing and nodding. "Wes's dad must really be loaded."

"Yeah, you could say that," Tommy replied, taking Kimberly's hands, pulling her deeper into the kitchen as he added, "Dinner's ready."

"Already?" said Kimberly, clearly surprised. "Have we been here that long?"

"Little over an hour and a half," Tommy answered, Kimberly's eyes going wide in disbelief. Laughing heartily, he continued, "It's easy to get lost in this house, huh? Imagine how great this place would be for a house party."

Kimberly chuckled and shook her head. "I don't even want to think about the kind of trouble that you boys got into here."

Tommy just laughed right along with her and a short while later they were seated on the back patio overlooking the beach, feasting on a delicious candlelit meal of: chicken marsala, wild rice, fresh steamed vegetables, piping hot French bread, and a bottle of Italian Chianti from 1950 that Kimberly was certain had to be worth at least a thousand dollars—in reality it was closer to two thousand dollars, though Tommy would never tell her that of course.

At one point in the meal Kimberly's curiosity got the better of her, and as she stabbed at a piece of chicken with her fork, she murmured, "This is so incredible, Tommy. I-I don't really know what to say. I mean, this was so out of left field. What brought this all on?"

Smiling, Tommy shrugged and said, "We've been going a mile a minute since you moved in: working, trying to get everything planned for the wedding, and all that. I figured we could use a weekend away from all that stuff, you know? Just you, me, the ocean, and this huge freaking house, with no one here to interrupt us."

Kimberly laughed. "No ulterior motive whatsoever?"

"I don't know," Tommy answered, shrugging helplessly once more. "I guess you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?"

Rolling her eyes, Kimberly said, "Waiting and seeing isn't exactly my favorite thing in the world to do, Tommy."

Tommy grinned. "I know," he replied, rising to his feet and offering his hands to Kimberly. "Come on, let's go take a walk."

Getting the suspicious feeling that this walk would inevitably lead to at least a portion of this surprise, Kimberly took his hands and allowed Tommy to pull her onto her feet. Barefoot and-in-hand they walked across the patio, down the steps, and onto the beach, approaching the shoreline in silence. Only when they had reached the water's edge, walking alongside it with the waves crashing just feet away from them, did Tommy speak once more.

"Okay, so obviously I didn't just bring you here for a quiet getaway," he murmured, Kimberly looking up at him with a bright smile. Sadly though, just as he was about to continue speaking he felt Kimberly's leg collide with his, and then the next moment they were both falling to the ground. Mid-tumble he was somehow able to turn and grab hold of her waist, pulling her around so that she landed on top of him, saving her from most of the impact.

Hovering over him, Kimberly looked down at Tommy and they locked eyes, simply staring at each other for many a silent moment. Then, without warning, both started to laugh and Tommy pulled her into a playful hug that saw them roll topsy-turvy in the sand, alternating positions and unknowingly growing closer to the water with each roll. They were moving so fast that it took both a little while to recognize that their clothes were dampening more and more by the second, but by that point it was too late. A relatively large wave came crashing against the shoreline, drenching them instantly and completely.

Not surprisingly, Tommy was visibly caught off guard, and stared down at Kimberly with his mouth agape, dripping water from every inch of soaked clothing, skin, and hair. "Did that really just happen?" he asked in a near whisper.

Kimberly simply nodded her head, biting down hard on her lip as she looked up at him while trying desperately not to smile at his expense. The sight of Tommy hovering over her, soaking wet, was undeniably sexy, making her want nothing more than to take him right then and there. At this point, her cardinal urges were simply too much to overcome; with one quick motion she had seized Tommy around the neck, pulling his lips to hers in a kiss driven by her desire to have him as soon as possible.

The waves continued to crash around them as they kissed, though much calmer than the one that had caused their initial wetness. With one hand in Kimberly's hair, Tommy slowly moved his hand towards his pocket, deciding that the speech he had planned out was no longer necessary. He fiddled inside his pocket for a few moments, and then regretfully pulled his lips away, gazing into her eyes with a wry grin as he showed her what he had retrieved. Kimberly's eyes went wide in disbelief, her right hand flying to her gaping mouth for Tommy had seized her left wrist, rendering that hand useless as he kissed the tip of her fourth finger.

"This is for you," Tommy murmured, slipping onto her finger the most beautiful ring she had ever laid eyes on.

Tears flooded her eyes as she stared at the ring, her body paralyzed in shock at what she was seeing. The band was eighteen carat hold, triple-crowned with a two carat Leo diamond that glimmered iridescently in the shining moonlight.

As her senses started to come back to her, Kimberly was barelu able to hoarsely choke out, "Tommy." Blinking her tears away rapidly she smiled brightly, shook her head, and grinned from ear to ear as she added, "You are amazing. I love you so much."

"I love you too," Tommy replied, kissing her softly. "I take it you like the ring?"

Smiling down at her as Kimberly admired the ring, Tommy gave her just enough time to nod her head once and then he was kissing her again, this time with the passion they had been showing minutes earlier. The beach would be but the first of many locations where the pair would make love this weekend, a weekend that both would remember for many years to come.

--

Time seemed to fly by without notice in the following months, and before either of them had time to realize it, it was already the new year. They had spent their first holidays together in years, almost all of it with Tommy's side of the family seeing as how her mother still lived in France and she had not spoken to her father in nearly a decade. Even so she was welcomed with nothing but open arms by the Oliver family, finding herself right at home as she shared in their many holiday traditions.

Never in her life had Kimberly felt so wonderful than she had these past few months with Tommy, and it was with those thoughts in mind that she found herself staring at him from across their kitchen table one Saturday morning in January, a smile plastered on her face as she watched him reading a newspaper, his own face hidden behind the spread out pages of the _Reefside Gazette._

"You're staring," Tommy commented, his wry grin going unnoticed thanks to the newspaper.

Kimberly's eyes went wide, wondering how in the world he could have possibly known that she had been staring at him without being able to see her. "No, I'm not," she lied, hastily immersing herself in the myriad of paperwork resting on the table in front of her. "I'm just trying to go over all this stuff for the wedding. You haven't even bothered to rent tuxes yet, and it's going to be April before you know it."

Tommy calmly folded the newspaper up and set it on the table, smiling at Kimberly as he did so. "It's the middle of January, Beautiful. I'll be fine as long as it's taken care of by the end of March," he replied, taking a sip from his coffee mug. "Besides, it's a lot harder to get five guys together to get measured for tuxedos than it is to get five girls together to try on dresses."

"_Five?_" Kimberly replied, shaking her head. "Try three, Tommy: Aisha, Trini, and Adriana."

"Jason and Adam are going to look pretty goofy then, walking up and down the aisle by themselves. Maybe they can go on each other's arms," supplied Tommy, chuckling. "I know you don't feel like you're all that close with Kat and Tanya, but I think they'd both be tickled pink if you asked them to be in the wedding. I mean, we are the original Power Couple, right?" he continued, sharing a laugh with Kimberly, who nodded as he added, "It just wouldn't seem right without them, you know? At least not to me, anyway."

A tiny sigh escaped Kimberly's lips. The truth of the matter was that she had been thinking about asking Katherine to be a bridesmaid for awhile now, especially seeing as how the only reason there was going to be a wedding at all was due to her and Jason, but she simply had not had the time to ask, mostly because things had been so damn hectic between dealing with the stresses of regular life, compounded with the recent holidays, while also trying to plan a wedding at the same time.

"I'll call Kat in a little bit and ask her," said Kimberly.

Tommy nodded. "And Tanya?" he questioned, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Well, I can't really have every other Ranger girl be a bridesmaid and not ask her to do it as well, can I?" Kimberly replied, Tommy chuckling as he shook his head. "So I guess I'll call her after I call Kat."

"Just think of it as saving Adam and Jason from being the Ambiguously Gay Duo on our wedding day," said Tommy, grinning triumphantly as Kimberly, in the midst of taking a drink of coffee, snorted into her cup.

With that, Tommy returned to his newspaper, while Kimberly began perusing the wedding paperwork with much more diligence than she had been prior to being caught staring at him. She looked at all the plans and figures with a smile on her face, all because of the man seated across from her, whom she knew without a doubt would not abandon her on the day of their wedding. The smile, however, quickly disappeared when she laid eyes on the guest list, replaced by a sad expression upon noticing a missing name.

"I really wish my dad was going to be coming," she murmured, attempting to bite back the flurry of emotions coursing through her.

"I know, Kim," Tommy replied, folding up the newspaper and returning it to the table once more, "But you didn't even send him an invitation."

"Because I know he wouldn't have said yes even if I had," said Kimberly, shaking her head. "Hell, he probably wouldn't have even said no. I bet he would've completely ignored the invitation just like he did the last time."

Tommy sighed deeply, not really sure what to say. It saddened him to know that Kenneth Hart's absence made her so upset, but at the same time he could not think of anything he could do to help her. Foot rubs, massages, and sweet whispered nothings worked quite well after she had had a bad day at work, but he severely doubted their ability to ease her tension now. In fact, he could only think of one thing in the entire world that could possibly make her feel better.

And that's when it hit him.

Suppressing the urge to smile, he quietly rose to his feet as Kimberly asked, "Where are you going?"

"Potty break," Tommy replied, earning a small laugh from Kimberly as he turned for their bedroom. He did not, however, go to the restroom as stated, instead stopping at Kimberly's side of the bed and retrieving her charging phone from the nightstand. Less than a minute later he had what he wanted, dialing a number on his own cell phone as he slipped through the sliding glass door that led to the backyard. He listened patiently as the line rang, until finally a female voice answered on the other end. Tommy just smiled and said, "Yeah, hi, can I speak to Ken Hart, please?"

--

"I feel like such an idiot," Kimberly grumbled, two weeks later, unable to see anything as Tommy held her arm, guiding her to whatever their destination was. So far, the only hint that she had been given was that they were outside, evidenced by the calm, evening breeze blowing ever so gently across her face. "Remind me again why I have to be blindfolded for this?"

Tommy smiled and answered patiently, even though she had already asked the same question at least half a dozen times already. "Because I don't want you to see what it is until we're there. Just be patient, I promise it's only a little bit further."

"You said that ten minutes ago, Tommy," Kimberly replied, reaching up for the blindfold with her free hand only to have it immediately seized by Tommy.

"Uh-uh," Tommy murmured admonishingly, shaking his head slowly. "You do that and you won't get to see the surprise."

Kimberly rolled her eyes beneath the black bandana that covered them. "I was just trying to scratch my eye through the blindfold, thank you very much," she innocently lied, Tommy chuckling while not believing her for a second.

"Uh-huh, sure, I bet," said Tommy, shaking his head again as they came to a stop. "Alright, this is it."

Grinning as Tommy's hand brushed her cheek on its way to the blindfold, Kimberly suddenly no longer felt irritation at her eyes being covered, but a clear sense of nervousness and excited anticipation for whatever it was that was about to be revealed to her. Obviously, since Tommy had gone to the trouble of blindfolding her, she knew that it had to be something big; not necessarily in size, but at least in meaning.

Then the blindfold was gone and she saw nothing, merely that they were in the parking lot of a fifteen-story office building that she had never seen before. Before she could speak, however, Tommy slowly turned her around and suddenly Kimberly had lost the ability to stand entirely, her legs giving way as she latched onto Tommy's arm with tears in her eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing. It had been more years than she cared to count, but the time apart became nonexistent when she set her sights on her father, standing less than fifteen feet away from she and Tommy.

"Daddy?" Kimberly whispered, her ring-bearing hand going to her mouth in shock, instantly doubting that this was indeed reality and not just one of the hundreds of dreams that she had had over the years about reuniting with her estranged father.

"Princess," Kenneth Hart murmured, his emotions visibly conflicted as his upper lip quivered slightly beneath his salt and pepper moustache.

"W-what are you doing here?" questioned Kimberly, the tears in her eyes threatening to fall at any given moment.

Mr. Hart half-smiled. "I think that's a question for Tommy," he replied, nodding his head in the direction of the former White Ranger.

With wide eyes, Kimberly turned her head to look up at Tommy, wearing a look of disbelief on her face. "You did this?" she asked, Tommy smiling and nodding. Swallowing hard, she continued softly, "Why?"

"You said you were upset that he wasn't going to be coming to the wedding," Tommy answered, putting his arm around Kimberly's shoulder, pulling her against his side. "Now you can ask him yourself."

Swallowing once more, Kimberly nodded slowly and then, without warning, took off running towards her father. She all but launched herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck as she clung to him with every ounce of strength that her tiny body could possibly hope to muster.

Mr. Hart, however, did not immediately reciprocate the hug, instead looking over her shoulder through tear-filled eyes at Tommy, as though waiting for some type of confirmation that it was okay to hug his daughter back. Truthfully, after going almost ten years without seeing her, a guilty Mr. Hart felt like he had lost the right to hug her quite some time ago; but Tommy just smiled and nodded, watching proudly as Kimberly and Mr. Hart both burst into tears as soon as his hands had found their way around her slim waist.

For what seemed like hours—though it had really only been a few minutes—Tommy merely stood there, more than willing to be a casual bystander to this emotional reunion that he himself had arranged. When their extended embrace had finally ended, Mr. Hart set his daughter down and took her face in his hands, placing a gentle kiss to the center of her forehead.

"I am so sorry for abandoning you, Princess," Mr. Hart croaked, smiling through watery eyes as he brushed some stray hair from her face. "When your mother and I got divorced, I knew it was my fault, and as selfish as it sounds, there came a point where I just couldn't bear to see you or your brother anymore because of what I had done to our family. I know you can't forgive me overnight, but—"

"It doesn't matter," said Kimberly firmly, shaking her head fiercely with eyes just as teary as her father's, whom she hugged tightly once more. With her face buried against his chest, she continued, "None of it matters anymore. All that matters is that you're here now."

"I love you so much, Kimberly," said Mr. Hart, looking over her shoulder at Tommy once again. This time, though, it was Mr. Hart who smiled; a bright smile that conveyed all the thanks his words would never be able to do.

"I love you too, Daddy," Kimberly murmured, relishing the fact that he still wore the same musky cologne he had worn throughout her childhood, a scent she had never been particularly fond of until this very moment. Pulling back slightly, Kimberly looked up at Mr. Hart and said, "I want you to be there when Tommy and I get married, and I also want you to be the one to walk me down the aisle."

"I-I couldn't," Mr. Hart replied, shaking his head. "I don't deserve to, Princess. Certainly Jason, or Zachary, or B—"

Kimberly shook her head. "No, it has to be you," she countered adamantly. "When I walk down that aisle, there is no arm I'd rather be on than yours. Please, Daddy, just say that you'll do it for me."

Looking down at her, Mr. Hart brushed the back of his hand against her cheek gently and murmured, "I was never very good at saying no to you when you wanted something, was I?"

Stifling a giggle, Kimberly shook her head once more. "So you'll do it, then?"

Mr. Hart smiled and nodded. "It would be an honor to walk you down the aisle, Kimberly, especially to a young man who loves you as much as Tommy does."

Grinning, Kimberly looked back at Tommy briefly, and as she brought her eyes back to her father she murmured, "Sometimes, I still wonder how I got so lucky. I've never been this in love before, Daddy."

"And I'm very happy for you, sweetie," said Mr. Hart, brushing another kiss to her forehead. "Now, Princess, I really must be going. I have a big presentation in the morning and _they_," he continued, jerking his thumb towards the large office building where he worked, "will never let me hear the end of it if it's anything less than absolutely perfect."

"You work here? Are you still doing advertising?" asked Kimberly, Mr. Hart nodding to both of her questions. "Will you call me when you have some free time, so we can catch up and everything before the wedding?"

"Of course, Princess," answered Mr. Hart, smiling down at his daughter. "How does dinner this weekend sound?"

"That sounds great," Kimberly replied, beaming ever so brightly. "I'll talk to Tommy and then call you, okay?"

Mr. Hart smiled and nodded, hugging Kimberly one last time as he bade her farewell, though he did not head for any of the few cars that still remained in the nearly deserted parking lot. Instead, he went straight for Tommy with an outstretched hand.

"Thank you so much, Tommy," Mr. Hart murmured, shaking Tommy's hand firmly. "What you've done here tonight…I can't—" he tried, choking on his words.

Quickly sensing that Mr. Hart was about to have another emotional breakdown, Tommy hastily interjected. "You don't have to thank me, Mr. Hart. In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't," he said with a laugh, adding, "Just promise me that you won't let Kimberly go another ten years without seeing her father."

"I have no intention of ever going that long without seeing my daughter again," said Mr. Hart, releasing his hold on Tommy's hand as he heard Kimberly's approaching footsteps. Turning back around, he looked at Kimberly and smiled, opening his arms wide as he added, "Goodbye, Princess."

"Bye, Daddy," Kimberly murmured, stepping into his embrace, holding onto him for as long as she could, until Mr. Hart regretfully released her. She watched as he turned to walk away, falling back and seeking the comfort of Tommy's awaiting arms, continuing to stare at her father until his blue sports car had disappeared from sight completely. Then she looked up at Tommy and smiled, her eyes brimming with tears once more. "I love you so much, Tommy. I can't even begin to describe how much this means to me."

"I love you too, Beautiful," Tommy replied, his hands rubbing up and down her back, his chin resting atop her head. "And I'm glad you're so happy. I honestly wasn't sure how you'd react after not seeing him for so long, you know? I thought you might be mad that I called him and set this little meeting up without your permission."

"Never," Kimberly whispered, nuzzling her face against his chest. "This is the most incredible thing that anyone has ever done for me. I mean, I really thought I was going to go the rest of my life never seeing him again. What I'm feeling right now…you have no idea what you've done for me, Tommy. I just hope Jason isn't too disappointed when he hears the news."

Tommy chuckled slightly and said, "You know, I don't really think he's going to be too busted up over it to be honest, seeing as how it saves him from having to pull double duty with all of his Best Man stuff too."

Kimberly laughed. "Yeah, you're probably right," she murmured, stepping out of Tommy's embrace, her hands immediately seizing his. "Come on, let's go home so I can show you how thankful I really am."

Grinning, Tommy just nodded and allowed Kimberly to lead the way, pulling him off towards where his Jeep sat at the opposite end of the parking lot. Walking hand-in-hand, Kimberly rested her head against his arm and smiled softly to herself, reminded once again by Tommy that there were still good men left in this world.

--

They were now just a little less than one month away from their April wedding, and Kimberly simply could not believe the downright terrible luck that she had been having these past few days. Currently hunched over the toilet on her knees, flu-like did not even begin to describe how she was presently feeling, nor did it help matters any that Tommy was stuck at work while she felt like she might keel over and die at any given moment. Okay, she might have been overreacting with the whole dying thing, but dammit, she wanted him at home, with her, holding her hair back for her while she vomited, gently rubbing her back and whispering to her that everything was indeed going to be okay.

It was now two o'clock on Thursday afternoon and she had yet to go to work this week, although she had tried on Monday only to turn back just ten minutes after leaving the house, her stomach a gurgling mess that made her sick at the mere thought of trying to do flips and cartwheels for nine hours a day. She felt utterly useless, to be quite honest, and even a bit guilty that Tommy was running around like a chicken with its head cut off at her expense.

When she had fallen ill Tommy had seized control brilliantly, taking on the task of sorting out some rather complicated last minute wedding details while rushing home every day on his lunch break just to check on her, not to mention all the times he had gone out at her request—to video, grocery, and drug stores alike—all in the name of trying to make her feel as close to comfortable as she could possibly be at the moment.

His performance this week had been better than she ever could have imagined, though deep down she knew his efforts were futile, at least when it came to her well being. Kimberly knew her body well, knew that this was not just some common cold or flu bug; this was much, much more than that.

Once she had ridden her body of what little nourishment she had been able to consume on Tommy's lunch hour, she slowly pushed back onto her feet and proceeded to brush her teeth before trudging back into the bedroom, crawling under the sheets and pulling them up to her neck, gripping them tightly as knowing tears started to fill her eyes. The answer had been there from the beginning, but up until now she had chosen to ignore it. Flipping onto her side, she gathered her phone from the nightstand and dialed the only person she wanted to speak to at the moment.

"Hey Kim," said Trini cheerfully, once the line had clicked, but the first Yellow Ranger's pleasantness disappeared when she heard Kimberly sniffling loudly. "Kim, what's wrong, sweetie?" she continued, but still there was nothing. "Kim, what's going on? Talk to me."

"I need you to come over, Trini, as soon as possible," Kimberly replied, stifling the urge to bawl right then and there.

"Kim, I'm kind of in the middle of work here—"

"Please, Trini, I need you," said Kimberly, firmly.

There was a long pause on the Trini's end of the line, then a sigh, followed by, "I, uh, I guess I can be there in forty-five minutes or so, but will you please tell me what's wrong so I at least know what to expect when I get there?"

Kimberly shook her head, despite the fact that she knew Trini could not see her. "No, I-I can't," she answered, her voice a hoarse whisper. "Just…please get here as soon as you possibly can, okay?"

"Okay," said Trini, though her dislike for the lack of information regarding this situation was evident in her voice. "I'm leaving in five."

After a thank you and goodbye, Kimberly returned the cell phone to her nightstand and then huddled beneath the sheets once more. Some two hours later she and Trini stood silently in the master bathroom, staring at each other in disbelief; but just as Kimberly was about to speak, Tommy's voice reached their ears from the front of the house, announcing to Kimberly that he was home while apologizing for being late due to a spur of the moment faculty meeting as he approached their bedroom.

"Kim, where are you?" said Tommy, upon seeing that their bed was empty. Looking around the room, his eyes fell on the closed bathroom door and the faint light creeping out from underneath it. Realizing that she was most likely throwing up again, he headed for the door and turned the handle only to discover that it was locked from the inside. "Kim," he continued, knocking lightly, "can you let me in, please?"

For nearly two minutes he waited, staring at the door in silence, not a single sound coming from behind it. When finally it opened, he was caught off guard to see that it was Trini who had done it, a teary-eyed smile on her face as she looked to Tommy and said, "I think you can go in now."

"What's going on?" asked Tommy, his head swiveling to follow Trini as she started to move passed him.

"Oh, I'll let Kim tell you. Bye Tommy," Trini replied, waving over her shoulder en route to the bedroom door.

Furrowing his brow, Tommy slowly turned around and entered the bathroom, his concern becoming evident the second he saw Kimberly sitting atop the toilet, holding her legs with her chin resting on her knees, the same knees her face was buried against. "Kim, sweetheart, what's wrong?" he questioned as he walked towards her, laying a gentle hand on her shoulder..

"I'm scared, Tommy," Kimberly whimpered, unable to meet his eyes. "I'm scared to death and I don't have half a clue what to do."

Lowering himself down to one knee, Tommy took her hands and murmured, "Just tell me what's wrong, Beautiful. Whatever it is, I'm sure we can get through it. What's the matter, are you feeling nervous about the wedding?"

Sniffling loudly, Kimberly shook her head. "No, it's not that," she replied, taking a very long and deep breath. "I-I'm," she stumbled, trying desperately to find the right words, only to nonsensically blurt out, "TommyI'mpregnant."

"What was that?" said Tommy, chuckling. "One more time, in English, please."

Finally raising her eyes, Kimberly stared deeply into Tommy's and, much more clearly, stated, "I'm pregnant, Tommy."

A loud thud came next, followed by Tommy grimacing in pain as he seized the knee that had just been elevated before his foot had slipped, his knee crashing into the hard linoleum floor as a result of his shock. Biting back the urge to punch something hard, like a wall, the same urge all men felt after doing something stupid like he had just done, Tommy returned his gaze to Kimberly and, very slowly, said, "You're pregnant?"

Kimberly nodded. "According to the stick I just peed on, I am."

Tommy breathed in deeply and held it that way for quite some time, not letting it out until he was back on his feet and running his hand through his hair. "Oh man, I can't believe this," he muttered calmly, looking around the room, everywhere but at Kimberly, making her feel like she had just delivered the most terrible of news; but then his eyes settled on Kimberly once more, and a wry grin crossed his lips as he exclaimed, "I'm going to be a dad! I can't believe it, I'm really going to be a dad!"

With that, the smile on Kimberly's face became just as bright as Tommy's. She should have known he would be happy, after all he had often made note of the fact that never knowing his blood parents only increased his desire to have a family of his own. His adoptive family was amazing, and he loved them all dearly, but he could hardly imagine a greater joy than starting his own family, evidenced by the smile on his face as he gently pulled Kimberly onto her feet.

"I take it you're happy, then?" said Kimberly, grinning against Tommy's chest as he embraced her warmly.

"Beautiful, I'm more than happy, I'm ecstatic," Tommy replied, pulling back just enough to kiss her forehead. "I can't believe this, first Ranger baby, you know," he continued, rambling on so fast it left Kimberly trying desperately to catch up. "Oh man, there are so many people I have to call: Mom and Dad; Sam and David; Jason and Kat; all the other Rangers! This is by far one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me!"

Kimberly was remiss to end his natural high. "Don't get too excited, Tommy. It's a home pregnancy test, and those can still be wrong. I'm going to need to call my OB/GYN to schedule an appointment in the next few days to confirm it."

Tommy, however, did not miss a beat. Only now noticing the three empty boxes on the sink counter, he seized them and asked, "Were all three positive?" Kimberly nodded and he added, "I'll take those odds, Kim."

Resting her head against his chest, Kimberly sighed and said, "Do you really think we're ready to be parents, Tommy? I mean, I don't think either one of us has the first clue of what it takes to raise a child."

"Neither do most parents when they have their first kid," Tommy replied, gently rubbing her back. "But we'll learn as we go along, and we'll get better with time. I've always wanted a family of my own, Kim, you know that as well as anybody; and, well…I'm ready if you are."

It did not take Kimberly long to find her answer, veiled as it was, delivering it as she slowly pulled herself from Tommy's embrace. "I think I'm gonna go call my doctor now."

--

And at last the day had arrived, a warm Saturday afternoon in April that could not have been more perfect if Tommy himself had been given full control over the weather. The sun was mild, no more than seventy degrees outside, exactly what Tommy was hoping for seeing as how this wedding was to occur outdoors. A sudden gentle breeze made him smile as he stood on the spacious lawn of one of Southern California's most exclusive country clubs in an all-white tuxedo, looking around at the many people seated before him: his parents, grandparents, and other assorted family of both he and Kimberly; Sam and David; Hayley and Dino Thunder Rangers, along with a multitude of other ex-Rangers as well, most of them Reds that he had served with on the moon mission with their fellow Ranger girlfriends and wives in tow.

That he was actually about to be marrying Kimberly after all these years was a fact that he still could hardly believe was real. It seemed like it had only been yesterday when she had come tumbling back into his life, though it had really been just over a year ago. They had gone through a lot throughout the past year, but it had all been worth it to get to this moment, mere minutes away from when Kimberly Hart, his fiancée, would become Kimberly Oliver, his wife.

And if that was not enough to have him grinning from ear to ear, there was also the fact that roughly seven months time would bring to him fatherhood, making him smile every time he thought about cradling a bundled up baby boy or girl in his arms; the child's gender did not matter, only that the child was his.

"This is it, bro, the big moment," Jason murmured, clasping Tommy on the shoulder, clad like all the other groomsmen in black tuxedos with ties and pocket squares that highlighted their various Ranger colors. "Are you ready for this?"

Exhaling deeply, Tommy looked back at Jason and nodded. "I've been waiting for this day since I was a kid, Jase, and now that it's here…let's just say I've never been more ready for anything in my life."

Jason smiled. "That's good, bro," he replied, releasing his hold on Tommy's shoulder with a pat. "That's real good. I know Kim's feeling the same way right now."

Tommy started to reply, but before he could get a single word out he was interrupted by the bridal march playing on the oversized speakers surrounding the crowd. All at once every head in attendance, including Tommy's, turned to face the country club's back door, waiting with baited breath for the bride to appear. When the doors finally opened and Kimberly stepped out on her father's suit-clad arm, it took Tommy a few moments of staring at her to realize that it was indeed his bride-to-be that he was looking at.

Her dress was vastly different than the one she had worn before, as was the way in which she had done her hair. The dress was a satin A-line halter with a floral lace pattern, accentuated with a pink ribbon just below her bust as well as in the veil flowing behind her head, while her hair remained straight, sleek and shiny as it bounced against her exposed back. Never in his life could Tommy recall a time where she had looked more beautiful than she did at that very moment, walking towards him with a smile on her face and a bouquet in her hands that was a cloud of pink and white baby's breath.

"Who gives this young woman to be married?" the casually-dressed minister asked, as Kimberly and her father came to a stop just feet in front of he and Tommy.

"I do, sir, her father. Her mother, too," Mr. Hart answered, indicating Caroline Dumas seated in the front row, beaming as he looked between Kimberly and the minister, then to Tommy. "She's all yours, son. Take care of her for me, okay?"

Smiling, Tommy nodded and said, "You have my word, sir." Then, reaching out to Kimberly, he took her hands and gently guided her around until they faced each other, the crowd to the left, the minister and wedding party on their right. "You look amazing, Beautiful."

"Thanks," Kimberly murmured, smiling brightly as she bit down ever so slightly on her bottom lip, relinquishing her hold on his hands to pass off to Trini—her once again, regretfully-pink-clad Maid of Honor—the bouquet, before slowly turning back to Tommy and adding, "You look pretty spiffy yourself."

Tommy winked and, turning to the minister, said, "I think we're ready, sir."

"Very well," said the blonde haired, goateed man, nodding as he stepped a few feet closer to them. Quietly clearing his throat, he addressed the crowd, "We are gathered here today on this beautiful afternoon to share and celebrate with Thomas and Kimberly as they exchange vows of their everlasting love for each other. Should anyone in attendance oppose this holiest and most sacred of unions, let them speak now or forever hold their peace."

In unison, the heads of Tommy and Kimberly swiveled to fact the crowd, both of them with looks that said any opposition to their marriage needed to be kept to whomever it belonged to. Many in the crowd chuckled at this, as did all of the wedding party, and even the minister as he nodded and pressed on.

"As Thomas and Kimberly take their vows today, we are all privileged to witness the joyous love of a new family, a family that will be nourished and nurtured through the devotion of two individuals growing together through the common bonds of love. An essential requirement for a good marriage is a strong bond of real friendship and trust. Thomas and Kimberly, your love for each other will only grow stronger and deeper with each passing day, but it is important for you both to remember that your love stands on a foundation of genuine, mutual affection and respect for one another. To truly _love_ another person is to be willing to accept both their strong points and their weak points, with equal measures of understanding and respect.

"The vows you are about to exchange here will serve as a verbal representation of the emotions that are as real as any thing that can be seen, smelled, tasted, or touched. For it is not the words that you will speak today that will bond you both together as one, but the strength of the love and commitment found deep within your hearts and souls. At this time I'll ask you, Tommy, and you, Kimberly, to take each other's hands so that you may share the vows that you have written for each other."

Swallowing hard, Tommy smiled at an already teary-eyed Kimberly and said, "Many people don't believe that love at first sight exists, but from the moment you entered my life back in high school I knew that it did. For nearly ten years I have loved you, Kimberly Hart, even when I didn't want to. We've been to hell and back together more times than I think either one of us cares to count, and I'm sure there are at least a few people here with us today who never thought we'd actually make it this to this point, but even when we were apart I never stopped hoping that this day would eventually come for us.

"Our relationship has changed and evolved quite a bit over the years, as all relationships eventually do, but there has always been one constant for me and that is the undying love that I had, and will always have, for you. As your husband, Kimberly, I promise to be your partner in life, your best friend; to cherish your friendship and love you today, tomorrow, and forever; to trust and honor you, laugh and cry with you; to be faithful through good times and bad, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live."

Biting back the urge to cry, Kimberly took a few deep breaths as she prepared to deliver her own vows. Any fears she might have had, any reservations if this was the right thing to do, disappeared the second her doe brown eyes met the chocolate color of Tommy's. Then, without warning and for no apparent reason, she abandoned her vows completely.

"A few months ago I sat down and wrote some things, things I thought that I wanted to say to you today, but now that today is finally here and we're standing in front of each other about to be married, those words just don't feel like enough. Ink on a sheet of paper will never be able to do justice to how I feel about you, Tommy. I'm one of those people here today that thought we might not ever make it this far, but like you part of me never stopped hoping that this moment would someday come. You mean everything to me, Tommy, the one man I've been with who I know loves me unconditionally; and not just parts of me, but all of me.

"Standing here now, I can't help but look back on what it took for us to get here, and despite everything we've been through over the years I wouldn't change a thing because every moment, no matter how big or small, has helped shape us into the people we are today, people committed to a lifetime of loving each other. As your wife, Tommy, I promise to be your partner in life, your best friend; to cherish your friendship and love you today, tomorrow, and forever; to trust and honor you, laugh and cry with you; to be faithful through good times and bad, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live."

Quite a few sobs could be heard in the crowd, causing Tommy to smile slightly for he was certain that at least two of them belonged to his mother and Caroline Dumas. His eyes were just as teary as Kimberly's as he stroked the tops of her hands with his thumbs, waiting patiently for the minister to interject once more.

"I must say that those were beautiful vows, beautiful vows indeed," the minister finally spoke, smiling between Tommy and Kimberly. "Now, Jason," he continued, turning back to the best man, "the rings, if you please."

Jason nodded and hastily approached them, retrieving the rings from inside his jacket, which he then handed off to the minister prior to returning to his place with the rest of the groomsmen. Then the minister gave one of the rings to both Tommy and Kimberly, waiting until they had been exchanged before declaring, "Now, through the power invested in me by God and the State of California, it is my distinct honor and privilege to declare Thomas James Oliver and Kimberly Ann Hart man and wife. Thomas, as the old adage goes, you may kiss your bride."

Nodding silently, Tommy gently took her face in his hands and brushed a few stray tears away from her face as he whispered to her, "I've been waiting a long time to do this, Beautiful."

"You better make sure it counts then," Kimberly murmured, smiling for only a second before Tommy had captured her lips with every intention of doing exactly as she had requested of him.

In the moments that followed it became only the two of them, just Tommy and Kimberly, both of whom were blissfully uncaring to the fact that they were kissing passionately in front of at least a hundred other people, all of whom happened to be applauding thunderously; and why should they have cared? After all, this was _their_ moment, one that they had both suffered through years of pain and heartbreak to get to.

When Tommy finally broke the kiss his cheeks were flushed, as were Kimberly's as they looked at each other and smiled. "I love you, Kim."

"I love you too, Tommy," Kimberly replied, unable to resist the urge to kiss him again.

"C'mon," said Tommy, still smiling as he turned towards the crowd and offered his arm to Kimberly.

She took his arm, and side-by-side they made their way down the white carpet that served as a makeshift aisle between the section of folding chairs on either side, music playing in the background though neither much cared what the tune was. Jason and Katherine were the first to follow, then Trini and Billy, Zack and Adriana, Adam and Aisha, and lastly Rocky and Aisha, all of them disappearing into a sectioned-off area of the clubhouse to sign documents and take pictures; Tommy and Kimberly's parents would be joining them for photographs shortly.

After being poked and prodded, shuffled around and told to stand straighter for nearly an hour Tommy had finally had enough, especially since most of the badgering was being done by his mother. It took another fifteen minutes to get the room cleared completely, leaving Tommy and Kimberly alone for the brief amount of time that they would have away from everyone else until much later that night.

"Just think, Beautiful," Tommy murmured, taking Kimberly's hands, whirling her around so that her back was pressed against his chest. Kimberly giggled in giddy delight, and even more so when Tommy pulled back some of her loose hair and kissed the nape of her neck before continuing, "This time tomorrow we'll be standing on the deck of the biggest cruise ship ever built, on our way to the Caribbean. No work, no cell phones, no annoying friends and family; just you and me."

Kimberly grinned. "I still can't believe they gave you the week after spring break off, too. I thought for sure that we were going to have to wait until the summer to go on our real honeymoon, and by then I am going to be way too fat to even _think_ about wearing a two-piece in public!"

Tommy laughed. "Yeah, well, when your boss is an ex-general to a half-man half-dinosaur that tried to revert the world to prehistoric times, both of whose lives you saved, an extra week of vacation isn't exactly a hard favor to call in for. And to your other point, I don't care if you blow up like a balloon. You're going to be just as sexy then as you are now."

"You're not going to be saying that when my stomach's hanging over my waistline," Kimberly argued, unable to fathom what it was going to feel like to add an extra twenty-plus pounds to a frame that had never carried more than a hundred-and-seven.

"Yes, I am," Tommy replied, softly but firmly. "Just you wait and see; you're going to be the sexiest MILF-to-be on the block."

Giggling, Kimberly rolled her eyes slightly and said, "Well that's not really saying very much considering ours is the only house on the block, but I appreciate the sentiment anyway. Just promise me you won't get all grossed out and disgusted when my belly prevents you from getting within twenty feet of me."

"Oh, god, it's not gonna be that bad, Kim," said Tommy, laughing as he shook his head. "Besides, we've talked about this before. You're carrying my baby, Beautiful, _our_ baby; there's nothing that could ever be even remotely disgusting about that. To be honest, I can't wait until you start to show more. I want everyone out there to know that the most beautiful woman in the world is about to become the mother of my child."

Slowly turning around to face him, Kimberly patted his cheek gently and said, "You're a good man, Tommy, and I know you're going to make an even better father." Tommy just smiled with the force of a thousand suns, unable to say anything as Kimberly eventually took it upon herself to continue, adding, "Come on, let's go parade ourselves in front of all those people out there that are waiting for us."

"I'd rather just stay in here with you until we have to leave for Long Beach tomorrow," Tommy replied, nonetheless allowing Kimberly to take his hand and lead the way.

"Yeah, me too, but dinner's out there and our bags are at home," said Kimberly, she and Tommy sharing a laugh as they exited one room and started towards another, this one blocked off by a lavish set of double doors with the country club manager standing in front of them.

"Wait here for just one moment please," said the older, gray-haired man, rushing through the doors and into the spacious reception hall. He returned less than two minutes later, and with a smile he silently beckoned Tommy and Kimberly into the room, just as Jason's voice reached them via microphone.

"Ladies and gentleman, for the first time—legally speaking of course, now that all the documents have been signed and everything—Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Oliver!"

As they entered the room to a rousing applause neither Tommy nor Kimberly could help but to laugh out loud at Jason's obviously ad-libbed introduction. They exchanged handshakes and hugs with as many well-wishers as possible en route to the head table, which ended up taking a lot longer to get to than either one of them could have expected. Eventually, though, they were able to reach their seats at the center of the table, Kimberly with her half of the wedding party on her right, Tommy with his half seated to his left.

For nearly an hour and a half they feasted and drank like royalty, laughing and joking casually with their friends while occasionally pausing to greet and thank those they had missed earlier, but whom still wished to offer their congratulations to the newlyweds. After the lavish three-tiered cake had been cut and served, and their dishes had all been cleared away, Tommy put his arm around Kimberly's shoulder, leaning in so that only she could hear him whisper, "I think it's about time for Jason to stand up and start crying."

Kimberly stifled a laugh just as Jason, as if on cue, rose to his feet with microphone in hand once more. Jason looked down at Tommy and Kimberly, smiling brightly as he turned to face the crowd, tapping the microphone to get their attention. Only when everyone was absolutely silent and giving him their full focus did he speak.

"So, um, I'm not sure how many of you out there actually know who I am, but my name's Jason Scott and for as long as I can remember I've had the privilege of calling Tommy and Kim two of my best friends in the world; Tommy I've known since we were sophomores in high school, Kim since I was old enough to realize how funny it was to watch her freak out after finding one of the fake spiders I'd hidden in the sandbox back when we were in kindergarten."

Quite a few people laughed at that, Kimberly rolling her eyes playfully as Jason blinked away some newfound tears and continued on with his speech.

"Needless to say, I've been there for quite a bit over the years, not all of it good, either. Some of you here tonight will never fully be able to understand exactly what these two people went through to reach this point in their lives. They've fought tooth and nail, and dealt with more crap in a decade than most couple's will experience in a lifetime. To see my two best friends sitting here now, married after everything they have been through together, makes me happier than any words could ever express. I want to offer you both my congratulations, and my hope that each year going forward will be even better than the one before it. You guys deserve all the happiness that this world has to offer, and I'm so glad that you have found that happiness with each other…hopefully for good this time."

Jason chuckled at his own joke, which went over the heads of many in attendance who did not know all of the detailed history between the newlyweds, while Kimberly turned her head to Tommy and muttered, "Remind me to kick his ass for that one."

"Right after I'm done with him," Tommy murmured, through his teeth-clenched smile.

After a few more words Jason returned to his seat, and it was not long after that when the disc jockey responsible for the last two hour's worth of music was requesting their presence on the dance floor. Though he dreaded the thought of being the center of everyone's attention, especially when it involved him dancing, Tommy swallowed his pride and went without complaint as Kimberly led the way.

"Don't worry," she whispered instinctively, swiveling her head to face Tommy. "They're all going to be looking at me, anyway."

Tommy laughed quietly and said, "Yeah, well then you better hope that I don't step on your toes any time in the next five minutes."

"Do it and it's going to be a _loooong_ time before we consummate this marriage," Kimberly replied teasingly, she and Tommy sharing a laugh as they reached the center of the dance floor. Then the room went dark, replaced moments later by a single, powerful light raining down on them from the ceiling.

"Spotlight…freaking awesome," muttered Tommy sarcastically, shaking his head. He could have performed a very detailed, complicated kata in front of thousands, but just the thought of being watched by a measly hundred people as he and Kimberly shared their first dance as newlyweds was enough to have his heart thumping nervously against his chest.

As soon as their chosen song started playing, however, he felt every ounce of nervousness and anxiety instantly flee his body. His arms then found their away around Kimberly's petite waist, hers slipping around his neck while once more they both became oblivious to the crowd of people who were watching them, this time as they slow danced to "It's Your Love," by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, a song that would now forever be engraved in their memories of this wonderful occasion.

By the time the song had ended, Tommy was beyond proud of himself for having not even grazed Kimberly's feet once throughout the entire dance. They ended their first dance with a kiss and some more applause, followed by the lights returning as the DJ encouraged everyone else to join Tommy and Kimberly on the dance floor.

For what seemed to be an eternity they continued to dance, exchanging partners more times than Tommy could ever even hope to remember, having lost track somewhere in between Katherine, Kimberly's mother, Aisha, and his grandmother on his father's side of the family, the latter of whom he had found quite a bit of trouble keeping up with during their dance despite the fact that she was already well into her eighties.

Eventually, little by little the guests started to disappear as it grew later into the night, until only the absolute closest of family and friends remained with Tommy and Kimberly. Alas, there came a point where even those that they were closet to had become like the proverbial fifth-wheel, both Tommy and Kimberly wanting nothing more than to be alone with each other after being paraded around like common circus attractions all night long.

As they drove home in Tommy's Corvette a short while later, Kimberly found herself desperately suppressing the urge to throw caution to the wind and have her way with him right then and there. What prevented her from possibly risking both of their lives, though, was the profound knowledge that she now had a lifetime's worth of happiness and having her way with Tommy to look forward to. After all, they were married now; he, unlike Jeff, had not left her at the altar.


End file.
